The Old Scars We Carry Into Our New Lives
by Wolfling21
Summary: Sequel to Long Before The Hawk We Know. The Avengers are only a team... sometimes. But they've been trying to figure out how to be friends. Our three favorite agents have to figure out how to exist along side these strange & dysfunctional people. And they're also going to deal with their entire world going to hell in the near future. Follows MCU Phase 2 after Iron Man 3. Hiatus
1. Chapter 1

_**Author: I'm back! Let me again say thank you to everyone who faved, followed and reviewed Long Before The Hawk We Know. It is absolutely because of you guys that this second book is getting written. This chapter sort of came about because I realized that while we saw Tony having PTSD, we never see it in anyone else. So I figured... who else could help superheros with PTSD but other superheros. Just call it Avenger Counciling session.**_

 **November 3** **rd** **, 2013**

"Does Tony know we're coming?" Clint asked.

"He knows that me and you are. I might have neglected to mention that the girls were coming with us." Steve smirked, casting a glance over his shoulder.

"That's nice Cap. Don't tell the wacky billionare he's gonna have more company that usual." Rain scoffed.

Natasha smiled and slid an arm around Rain's waist, giving her a squeeze.

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Tony looked up when his music shut off and called, "Jarvis?"

"Forgive me sir, but you have company. Captain Rogers and Clint Barton are here to see you." Jarvis told him.

"Already? I thought they were just here the other day." Tony asked.

"That was a week and a half ago sir." Jarvis said.

Tony rolled his eyes and said, "Tell them to make themselves at home. I'll be there in a few minutes."

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"So how long have you two been showing up here like this? Having little heart to hearts with our favorite billionare?" Rain asked, stretching out on the couch.

"I've been coming up here since March. I started bringing Clint with me back in July. When I could tear him away from SHIELD." Steve told her.

"How successful have you been in that?" Natasha smirked.

Clint chuckled and said, "Pretty successful actually. I've been dragged up here a fair few times. And came willingly several other times."

"Don't make it sound so dirty Hawk. I love you but not like that."

Steve rolled his eyes as Tony walked into the room. "How much have you had to drink Tony?" he asked.

"Not as much as I should. Maybe we should remedy that. What do you say Hawk?" Tony shrugged, throwing an arm around Clint's shoulders.

"Sounds fun." Clint agreed.

"Drinks all around then?" Tony asked.

"Not for me." Rain called.

Tony spun to look at the figure sprawled out on his couch and asked, "No drink Hell-Cat?"

Rain shook her head and said, "Never Stark."

"Why not?" he asked.

"My biological parents drank way too much when I was a kid." she told him.

Tony poured himself a drink and said, "So did my dad."

Rain got up, went over to him and hissed, "Did he ever hold you down on the kitchen table and cut your arm up for the hell of it?"

Tony stared at the scar on her arm, which he had seen before but never thought much of. "Your dad?" he whispered.

"No the bitch who gave birth to me." she told him.

He nodded slowly and said, "No drink."

Natasha gently pulled her away to sit back on the couch. "Come on Milaya." she said.

Clint brought them a bottle of water to share before he settled down on the floor in front of the couch. "So? What kind of heart to hearts are we having now?" he asked.

Steve smirked and said, "That depends. Tony, how have you been?"

Tony sat on the other couch and said, "Not bad actually. At least according to Pepper."

"Mr. Stark is doing quite well. He is eating regularly, sleeping semi-regularly and is having very few nightmares." Jarvis piped up.

Clint touched his beer to Tony's and said, "Congrats man."

"What about you Birdy?" Tony asked Clint.

Clint leaned back and said, "I'm not doing too bad. Been about a week since my last nightmare. Over a month since I've had one with Loki being involved."

"That's pretty damn good right?" Natasha asked from where she was curled up next to Rain.

"A hell of a lot better than waking up every night screaming my lungs out." he said.

Rain flashed him a sympathic smile and whispered, "Nights like those suck."

"Agreed." Tony muttered.

Steve looked at the girls and asked, "What about you two?"

"Not doing too bad. Had a few rough nights right after and I almost froze up on a couple of milk runs but... I'm doing a lot better now." Natasha admitted.

Rain pulled her phone from her pocket and glanced at the screen. The SHIELD insignia with Fury's name under it flashed on the screen. "Yeah boss." she asked.

"I have a mission." Fury said.

Rain got up and said, "I'm listening."

"I need you in London. Off the record." Fury told her.

"Why?" she asked.

"I'll have packet waiting for you in DC when you get here to collect your gear and catch the flight to London." Fury told her.

"I'll be there as soon as possible sir." she assured him.

Natasha looked up as Rain tucked her phone away and grabbed her jacket off the couch. "Mission?" she asked.

"Yeah. I gotta get to DC to collect my gear, the mission packet and catch a flight to London. Will you be okay?" Rain asked, kissing her.

"Yeah, I'll get a ride where ever I want to go with one of the boys." Nat told her.

"What's in London?" Clint asked.

"Mission. Fury didn't say anything beyond that." Rain told him.

Tony raised his beer to her and said, "Best of luck Hell-Cat."

"Stop calling me that. And you boys better take care of my woman." she called over her shoulder.

"You know, the fact that she doesn't want to kill you anymore means she likes you." Clint told Tony.

Steve laughed as Tony asked, "Is that how you guys say I love you?"

 _ **Author: btw count this as a prologue. I'll be back in a few days with more action.**_


	2. Chapter 2

_**Author: It feels so good to be back in the MCU. Writing Flash/Legends is fun but it's not as fun as my favorite team. Anyways, have fun picking out the little nods to other universes I put in here. I was gonna wait until midnight May 6**_ _ **th**_ _ **to post this but since I'm working early mornings, I won't be awake that late & I'm seeing a 4:45pm showing of Civil War... so yeah. **_

**November 3** **rd** **, 2013**

 **London, England**

"Agent Barton?"

Rain glanced over her shoulder as a young agent looked at her uncertainly. "It's Rain. But yes?" she asked, rolling her eyes.

"I was sent to fetch you when you landed." the agent admitted quietly.

Rain shook her head, tossed her duffle bag over her shoulder and muttered, "Lead the way."

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"This is only a temporary set-up I assume." Rain said, brushing aside the tarp that was keeping the rain out.

"Yes ma'am."

"Agent Barton. Thank you for coming and welcome to London. I'm Agent Romero Sucre." another agent called, pulling himself away from a computer.

He was handsome enough with a dark tan, curly dark hair, hazel eyes. He struck her as easy going but a dependable and somewhat firm leader.

"Just call me Rain, please." she told him as she glanced around.

The temporary base only had a dozen agents including Sucre himself, most of them on computers, tablets or laptops. She recognized pictures of Jane Foster, Erik Selvig, Darcy Lewis and Thor as well what appeared to be some sort of atmospheric readings.

"Are you familiar with atmospheric readings?" Sucre asked.

"Only vaguely. I'm a fighter, not a tech. Thor and Doctor Selvig... them I know more about." Rain admitted, leaning over the shoulder of a tech to look at his screen. "This picture isn't from either New Mexico or New York." she added.

"It was taken two days ago. Thor was seen on by local authorities on private property housing an abandoned factory with Jane Foster and Darcy Lewis, as well as a young man named Ian Boothby. The authorities were called by Miss Lewis after Jane Foster disappeared for a five hour time period and could not be located within or around the factory. Authorities attempted to apprehend Foster but were attacked." Sucre told her.

"By Thor?" Rain asked.

She had seen Thor be ruthless in battle but attacking innocents was not something he'd do, even if someone he loved was in danger.

"By Foster. Show her the video." Sucre said.

The agent in front of Rain obeyed and Rain cocked her head as she watched an officer try to grab Foster, only to be blasted back by some kind of energy. "What is that?" she asked.

"We're not sure yet. All we know is that following this incident, Thor and Foster disappeared and have not been seen since then." Sucre admitted.

"What about Selvig, Lewis and this new player... Boothby?" Rain asked.

"On October 30th, Selvig was apprehended at Stonehenge after streaking through the area and terrorizing other visitors to the the locations. He had since been admitted to a mental institution here in London. It seems that he's been unstable since being subjected to Loki's mind control." Sucre told her.

"Unstable? He seemed fine in New York City when we sent the Tesseract and Loki back with Thor." she whispered, feeling a bit guilty that she had not kept track of Selvig after everything that had happened.

Sucre gingerly touched her shoulder and whispered, "What happened to him and your father was because of Loki. You are not at fault, in any way, shape or form."

Rain tensed under his touch and pulled away. "Where is Selvig now?" she asked.

"He was checked out of the institution earlier today by Darcy Lewis and Ian Boothby, who claimed to be his son. Cameras through the city have allowed us to track them to this address, which appears to be a flat rented by Foster." the agent in front of the computer said, pointing to an address on the screen.

Rain nodded, memorizing the address and asked, "Where's the nearest restaurant to here? I'm starving."

"There's a place nearby, If you don't mind pub food." another agent piped up.

Sucre nodded and said, "Agent Rain meet Agent Amelia Everdeen. She'll show you to her favorite little restaurant."

"Just Amy, please. Sucre loves formalities." she laughed, shooting at a glance at her superior who smirked.

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"Sir?! Thor and Jane Foster were spotted outside Foster's building." an agent, Jacobs if Rain remembered correctly, called over his shoulder.

"When?" Sucre asked.

"Not even ten minutes ago." Jacobs said.

Rain grabbed her helmet and said, "I'll go. Thor knows me from New York."

"The flat number is 221B." Sucre told her.

Rain laughed as she went out to her motorcycle and reminded herself to tell her dad and Nat about Foster's address later.

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Jane jumped at the sound of a knock on the door.

"Maybe that's the pizza I ordered." Darcy chirped, getting up.

Rain raised an eyebrow at Darcy Lewis, who pouted as she answered the door. "No pizza?" the other woman asked.

"No. I'm here to see Thor and Jane Foster." Rain told her.

"Um..." Darcy began uncertainly.

Thor looked past Darcy and smiled half heartedly at the figure outside the door. "Let her inside Darcy. She is a friend." he said.

"Who is that?" Jane asked him.

Rain stepped inside, set her helmet down and pulled off her boots.

"She is Rain Barton. A SHIELD agent whom I fought alongside against the Chitauri." Thor said.

"Good to see you big guy. You don't look so great though." Rain told him.

"Much has happened in recent days. The Convergence, Loki's death and my mother's murder..." Thor admitted softly.

Rain stood on her tiptoes to hug him and whispered, "I'm so sorry."

She hated Loki and had never met Thor's mother but she couldn't imagine losing Laura, Cooper or Lila.

Thor squeezed her gently, keeping in mind how fragile mortals were before whispering, "Thank you. Come, let me introduce my friends."

"Miss Barton." Selvig said, getting up from his chair.

Rain stared at a point past his shoulder and said, "Doctor Selvig... as glad as I am to see you, would you please mind putting on pants? I think it's impolite to not wear any with company around."

Selvig paused and muttered, "Yes... yes, pants. Of course."

"How did you do that?" Darcy asked.

"It's like talking to a small child. All they need is a push in the right direction and they'll do exactly what you ask of them." Rain told her.

"Rain, this is Darcy Lewis. Ian Boothby. And Jane Foster." Thor said, wrapping an arm around Jane gently.

"Miss Foster, it's nice to finally meet you. Thor's extremely fond of you or so I've heard at least." Rain said with a slight smile. Jane was pretty, in a very simple and down to earth way... a lot like Laura.

Jane blushed as someone else knocked on the front door.

"Pizza!" Darcy cheered.

"Is she always like that?" Rain asked.

"More often than not." Jane sighed.

Selvig returned, this time wearing pants and asked, "Would you like to join us for dinner Agent Rain?"

"Sure." Rain said.

 _ **Author: One little nod I will give away. I based Sucre off Poe Dameron from Star Wars The Force Awakens.**_


	3. Chapter 3

_**Author: Work is so exhausting... I hate early morning shifts. But I'm seeing Civil War after work so that makes it all better! In the meantime, enjoy our favorite girl being badass and using a new toy. Cookies to whoever catches the Easter Eggs.**_

"Seriously, how'd you do it?" Darcy asked.

"Darcy." Jane scolded.

"She put away almost as much pizza as Thor and I wanna know how." Darcy told her.

Rain rolled her eyes and said, "I have a very fast metabolism."

"But you're little." Darcy protested.

"She might be slight in stature but Rain is a warrior worthy of Valhalla." Thor said.

Rain smirked as she straddled a chair by the table.

"Malekith is going to fire the Aether at a spot where all the nine worlds are connecting." Jane said.

"Amplifying the weapons impact. For each additional world, the power will increase exponentially. The effect would be universal." Selvig added.

Jane looked at Thor who shook his head and said, "Yes but the alignment is only temporary. He must be in exactly the right place at the right time."

"Well, how do we know where that is?" Darcy asked.

They all fell into silence, looking at each other. "We follow the directions." Selvig whispered, getting up.

Jane stared at him as she got up to follow him as he grabbed a map.

"This has happened before... thousands of years ago. And the Ancients were there to see it." Selvig told them, sweeping stuff off a table to unroll the map.

"I think he's gone kooky." Darcy hissed to Rain, who rolled her eyes.

"All the great constructions... the Mayans, the Chinese, the Egyptians. They made use of the gravitational effects of the Convergence. And they left us a map." Selvig said, laying down a ruler and drawing lines on the map.

"Stonehenge, Snowden... the Great Orme. These are all coordinates, taking us... here." he muttered, pointing.

"Greenwich?" Ian asked.

Rain pulled out her phone and texted Sucre: "Find out if there have been an atmospheric anomalies in Greenwich."

"The walls between worlds will be almost non-exist. Physics is going to go ballistic. Increases and decreases in gravity... the very fabric of reality is going to be torn apart." Jane rambled.

The coat hook by the door shook as Mjolnor flew to Thor's hand.

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 **November 4** **th** **, 2013**

 **Greenwich**

"Agent Sucre, do you have something for me?" Rain asked.

"Yes ma'am. We've had reports of strange occurrences in London and Greenwich. Many of them seem to be of items or people disappearing in one location and reappearing in another." Sucre told her.

"Selvig and Darcy said something like that happened after she and Boothby sprung Selvig from the psych ward. They saw a flock of birds disappear into something shimmery in midair and then the entire flock flew up from the ground right where they were standing. They also told me that in the warehouse Foster disappeared from, there was an anomaly where dropped items would fall down past them, disappear and sometimes reappear above them to fall again. Sometimes those items would fall and disappear but not reappear above them." Rain muttered.

"Do you think they are related to the atmospheric anomalies and this Convergence?" Sucre asked.

"Foster, Selvig and Thor seem to think that's the case... so yes." she admitted.

"Alright... then be careful." Sucre said.

Rain tapped a button on her com to silence it and glanced over her shoulder in time to see a massive shimmering form heading for the university. "That's a lot bigger than a Leviathan." she whispered as people started running past her.

"Deep breaths. If Stark can deal with this, you sure as hell can." she muttered, blocking out the civilians screams.

The last thing she needed was to freeze up when the war was about to begin.

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The ground shook and the brick walkway shattered as Thor landed.

"You needn't have come so far, Asgardian. Death would have come for you soon enough." Malekith told him.

"Not by your hand." Thor scoffed.

"Your universe was never meant to be. Your world and your family will be estinguished!" Malekith shouted. The power of the Aether flew out of his body and struck Thor, sending him flying backwards.

A second blast knocked Thor back and he got up, ready for a third.

"You know, with all that power, I though you'd hit harder." he chuckled.

Malekith gathered the Aether around him, preparing for another strike.

Behind him. a Dark Elf cried out in pain. A whip was wrapped around it's throat and electricity made it convulse.

"Come here." Rain snarled, giving the whip a tug to drag the Dark Elf to the ground. The electricity didn't seem to be enough to kill it but more than enough to hurt it.

SHIELD had taken the technology Ivan Vanko had used against Stark in Montecarlo and modified it into weapons for their agents to use. Rain had become fond of the whips.

It was because of a certain blonde, leather clad, whip wielding thief from her chilhood... but she'd only ever admit to family.

Malekith snarled at Rain, just before Mjolnir crashed into him. Rain laughed as Malelith flew backwards into the other Elves behind him, through a pillar and into a car.

"Will you be alright?!" Thor shouted.

"These guys can't be any worse than the Chitauri right?!" Rain shouted back, shooting the Dark Elf at her feet between the eyes.

Thor smirked and flew off to follow Malekith. When he landed, he slammed Mjolnir down, sending a wave of lightning across the ground to strike the Dark Elf.

"Kill the mortal." one of the Elves hissed.

Rain smirked and spun, hitting two of them across the face with her whip and shooting another near the collarbone. _"Their armor isn't that strong anywhere it's black.. so let's aim for that. In the meantime, I gotta use the jolt from the whip to keep them from overwhelming me."_ she thought.

To her left, there was a ripple and a handful of Dark Elves disappeared. "Guess that means Jane got that thing working." she laughed.

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"That is awesome! How did you do that?" Darcy shouted into her phone.

"Well, the gravitational fields interact with the weak spots between worlds, creating..." Jane began.

"Ooh! Get the guy with the sword!" Darcy laughed.

Jane turned a dial and below where she and Erik stood, Darcy and Ian disappeared.

"Oops." she whispered.

"Let's go." Erik told her.

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Thor slammed Mjolnir down, causing a ripple of energy that tore up the ground and shattered the windows of the nearby library.

Malekith blasted him back into the corner of a roof and he flew back, tackling the Dark Elf straight into a portal.

He was disoriented for a moment as they exited the portal and hit sand. _"Svartalfheim."_ he thought, trying to keep the black sand out of his mouth. He heard Malekith curse as they tumbled down the dunes and over a cliff.

Partway into the ravine, a second portal opened and then they were falling through the air above London. "This is not good." Thor whispered as they hurtled towards the ground and were swallowed by another portal... that took them back to Svartlfheim.

Thor snarled and threw his hammer at Malekith, which disappeared before it even hit the Dark Elf. "Damn." he growled as Malekith launched another burst of Aether at him.

Malekith laughed as he slammed his fist into Thor's back, hearing the Asgardian groan in pain. The sand swallowed them up and then they were back over the city.

Thor yelped as they collided with the side of a glass tower and he caught sight of humans eating inside. _"Who builds a glass restaurant?"_ he thought as they fell.

"Mjolnir!" he called, willing his hammer to him. As strong as he was, he couldn't fly without the hammer and a fall from the sky like the one he was in would certainly hurt.

Mjolnir was almost close enough to grab when he felt the now familiar ripple of energy and then Earth disappeared... again.


	4. Chapter 4

_**Author: It's weird but I'll be glad when I'm done writing through The Dark World. It's not one of my favorite movies and it feels weird to be writing it out. Anyways: have fun. Also realized that I post the next chapter but not this one.**_

Erik glanced over his shoulder and asked, "What are you doing?"

"My signal's not connecting." Jane told him.

Part of the building fell behind them and a group of dark elves came around the corner they had just turned not long before. Jane stopped to turn a dial as Selvig spotted another group of elves on their other side.

"Jane come on." he demanded, grabbing her and running into the courtyard with her.

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"Jotunhiem, wonderful." Thor growled, shaking snow off.

Malekith looked around at the frozen world before glaring at him.

"Oh no." Thor whispered as a growl caught his attention just before a Frost Beast burst out of the ice behind the Dark Elf.

The impact of the Frost Beast's landing shattered the ice shelf, sending all three of them into the ravine below.

"Not again!" Thor yelped when they fell through another portal to land on Earth.

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"Come on!" Darcy shouted as she and Ian tried to avoid the Dark Elves.

"This way." Ian said, pulling her aside as a group of elves fired at them.

Darcy screamed and dropped to the ground beside a car as the Frost Beast from Jotunhiem skidded to a stop at the mouth of the alley.

The Dark Elves hesitated, unsure what to think of the beast.

The Frost Giant growled and snatched the closest elf in it's jaws to eat.

"Flee?" one of the remaining Dark Elves asked.

"Away from the beast." another agreed before they all ran in the opposite direction.

The Frost Beast shook it's head and swallowed before bounding away.

"Oh my god." Darcy panted, getting to her feet.

Ian cocked his head and stared at the car in front of him. "It's floating." he whispered, glancing at another set of Dark Elves approaching.

Darcy screamed as the car flew past her, crashing into the elves that were just about to fire on her.

Ian glanced down at door of the car truck still in his hands and asked, "Are you alright?"

"You saved my life." Darcy whispered.

"Yeah I guess I did." he admitted.

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Rain sighed as another Dark Elf fell, this one with a stab wound to the jugular.

She had used up both clips for her gun sometime ago but luckily most of the elves were dead. Some had probably scattered to other parts of the city.

"This is probably how Cap felt when he stormed that Hydra base to find Bucky and the Commandos." she muttered, leaning against a overturned car.

In her hand, the whip whirred and flickered once before powering down. "Power source must have died." Rain groaned.

"Is your toy dead mortal? Do no mourn for you will join it shortly." a Dark Elf hissed to her right.

There was blood seeping from his thigh from Rain was sure was a bullet wound. "You bastards are tougher than I thought. Not quite as tough as Chitauri though. Even with a weakness towards electricity, they made us fight hard to beat them. You guys not so much." she smirked.

The elf pulled out what looked like a curved dagger and dove at her. He was fast, but not nearly as fast as she was and certainly not while he was bleeding out.

She danced back, keeping out of his reach as he swiped at her again. "You're wearing yourself out. Especially with that bullet wound." she told him.

"Stand still." he growled.

Rain laughed and pulled a knife from her boot, sneaking up behind the Elf to shove the knife into his skull. "No hunter asks his prey to stand still so he can kill it." she growled.

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Jane and Erik slid to a stop, glancing around to see Dark Elves on two sides of them.

" _This is bad... this is very bad."_ Jane thought.

Behind her, the air shimmered and one group of the elves disappeared.

Erik's eyes widened at what replaced them: Darcy with Ian tipped back in her arms, kissing him.

"Darcy?" Jane asked.

Darcy looked up and let go of Ian, who fell to the ground. "Jane!" she yelped.

"Ian?" Erik asked.

"Selvig." Ian chirped.

Mjolnir flew past them, trying to find it's back to Thor. "Mew mew!" Darcy shouted.

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Thor groaned as he hit the ground. He was in a tunnel, of some kind and there was a long vehicle beside him. He wasn't sure what it was called but it reminded him of the things that the Avengers called cars.

As he got up to his feet, the doors to the vehicle opened and people stepped either out or in.

"How do I get to Greenwich?" he demanded, catching the attention of a blonde woman.

"Take this train. Three stops." she said as another passenger took his picture.

He stepped onto the vehicle... train... and stood beside the woman. It was a cramped and strange method of transportation but it would suffice.

As the train began to move, the woman fell against his chest. "Sorry, sorry." she whispered, blushing.

" _Do not tell Jane."_ Thor thought, smirking.

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Rain looked up at the worlds appearing on the other side of portals in the sky. "Which one's Asgard?" she wondered aloud. One looked like it was all wooded areas, another full of ice and snow, a third fire and lava but the fourth was too far away to really make out.

A flash of black and red caught her attention and she looked over, just in time to see the Aether swirl around Malekith like a tornado.

"That's not good." she whispered.

"We're out of time." Jane gasped, appearing at her shoulder before running towards the Convergence.

"Jane! Jane!" Selvig shouted.

"Come on." Rain told Selvig, following after Jane.

The Aether was swirling around the Dark Elf ship, climbing up towards the sky and the portals to the other realms. Rain had to admit, it would be beautiful... if it didn't mean the destruction of all nine realms.

"Thor!" Jane shouted, catching sight of a flash of bright red.

Thor glanced back, nodding to them before looking back at the Aether.

"We're out of time." Jane whispered.

"The Convergence is at it's peak." Selvig shouted over his beeping equipment and the roar of the Aether tornado.

Thor glanced at the equipment Selvig had in hand and asked, "Can those things stop it?"

"Not from here." Selvig admitted.

"We can't get close enough." Jane added.

"I can." Thor told them.

"I'm going with you. Fury sent me here to investigate and stop whatever's going here." Rain told him.

Thor smiled, set a hand on her shoulder and said, "You are a brave warrior Rain. If I knew that you would survive a trip into the heart of that, I would gladly have you at my side. But I fear you would not so I ask that you remain here. Protect Erik Selvig and Jane until I return."

Rain sighed and nodded slowly. She hated not being in the thick of a fight but if more Dark Elves appeared, Jane and Selvig couldn't fight them off.

"Just do me one favor before you run off. Give this some juice." Rain said, holding out her whip.

Jane, Selvig and Rain all stared as electricity flowed off Thor and down into the whip in waves. "Darcy would love to see this." Jane whispered.

Thor handed the whip to Rain and said, "It is an unconventional weapon but it, no doubt, serves you well."

She nodded as he took the equipment from Selvig and ran into the swirling Aether.


	5. Chapter 5

_**Author: OMG! Civil War is so amazing! Seriously, if you haven't seen it, you really need to. Work has been exhausting so yeah... sorry. Edit: I also realized that I posted this chapter prematurely so be sure to go back & read the last chapter. Also a few recent reviews have not been showing up yet when I go to view them even though the review count has gone up so I will be read & response if needed asap.**_

" _This might have been a very bad idea."_ Thor thought as he forced his way through the Aether.

His skin stung where the Aether touched it and he was glad that he had forced Rain to stay behind with Jane and Erik.

"Malekith!" he shouted.

Malekith turned slowly to face him and bellowed, "Darkness returns, Asgardian. Have you come to witness the end of your universe!"

Thor inhaled sharply and said, "I've come to accept your surrender."

Malekith stared at him as he threw one of Selvig's poles at Malekith, who caught it. The pole began to beep then Malekith's arm disappeared.

Malekith howled as Thor threw another pole, which embedded itself in the elf's opposite shoulder.

The second pole beeped seconds before his second arm disappeared.

"You think you can stop this? The Aether cannot be destroyed." Malekith told him.

The Aether flowed to his shoulders and took the form of limbs.

"But you can." Thor told him, calling Mjolnir to him.

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"Rain." Erik said, glancing over his shoulder.

Rain looked past them as a trio of Dark Elves came around a corner behind them.

"Keep an eye on that twister. I've got these three guys." Rain said.

Jane nodded and glanced back up at the swirling Aether.

"Foolish mortal. Your Asgardian will fall and so will your world." one of the elves laughed.

"He's not MY Asgardian. And Thor's a very tough son of a bitch, probably tougher than your so called leader." Rain smirked.

"Kill her!" a second elf snarled.

Rain flicked her wrist and the whip wrapped around the elf, who screamed and convulsed. "Oh... I like this." she laughed.

Whatever Thor had done to the whip had given it an extremely powerful charge, more so than any of the SHIELD techs had been able to do.

The last two elves stared as their companion crumpled to the ground.

"Anyone else?" she asked.

Rain laughed as Mjolnir flew past, crashing into both elves along the way.

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Thor rushed Malekith before leaping into the air and driving the pole into the Dark Elf. Electricity crackled as he slammed Mjolnir into Malekith's chest.

Thor flew back as Malekith was blasted backwards into his Ark.

Outside the Aether, Jane turned a dial on her device as Rain stabbed the two elves to make sure they didn't sneak back up on them.

Malekith screamed and disappeared.

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Jane shoved the device in Selvig's hands and ran towards where the Aether had been swirling.

Thor was laying on the ground, unconscious.

"No, no, no.." she whispered, rushing towards him.

Above them, the Ark rumbled and began to fall towards them.

She rolled him over and grabbed his arm, trying to drag him away.

"Jane!" Erik shouted.

Rain stared up at the Ark as Darcy and Ian skidded to a halt nearby.

Jane whimpered before throwing herself over Thor and clinging to his chest.

The Ark disappeared from view and Jane opened her eyes a moment later.

"Everyone okay?" Erik grinned, holding up the device.

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Thor groaned and stared up at the sky as he slowly woke up. "Where is Malekith?" he asked.

"Where ever the portals open up to." Erik told him as Jane squeezed him.

"Svartalfheim." he muttered, gently sitting up and glancing around.

Behind them, Darcy and Ian were kissing.

"Get a room." Rain called, smirking at them.

Thor let Jane cling to him as he got up and Selvig tucked himself under his other arm. "Let's get somewhere... safer." Erik suggested.

"Yeah... this all looks horrible." Rain admitted, glancing around.

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 **November 6** **th**

"Are you leaving?" Thor asked.

Rain tossed her bag over his shoulder and said, "Yeah. I should get back to the US. Fury's going to want a debrief on what happened here. And our agents here will need to find a way to smooth all of this over."

Jane hugged her and whispered, "Be safe."

"You too. Take care of your team... Thor included." Rain told her.

Jane nodded slowly before stepping away.

"It was nice to see you again Miss Rain." Selvig said.

"You too Doctor Selvig. And no more trips to the looney bin." she smirked.

Selvig chuckled and said, "Tell the Hawk hello next time you see him."

"I will." Rain assured him.

Thor hugged Rain gently and whispered, "Tell your father hello and reassure him that Loki will harm no one from here on out."

Rain's eyes widened and asked, "How did you know?"

"Hiemdell. He told me that you caught his attention long before the Hawk found you." Thor chuckled.

She smirked and muttered, "Just don't tell anyone else. It's a bit of a secret. And tell Hiemdell... thanks for looking out for me."

 _ **Author: yeah, I think Rain would have caught Hiemdell's attention. She probably reminds him of Sif.**_


	6. Chapter 6

_**Author: okay this one is totally a bonding chapter. I was bored and wanted something cute cuz Rain and Steve are adorable together. Also my inner fan/nerd girl came out to play some/alot here. Everything belongs to their owners, except Rain who is mine. It may also be a bit before another update cuz I have to figure out what's going with Clint & Rain during Winter Soldier.**_

 **March 5** **th** **, 2015**

 **Washington DC**

"You're sure he'll be home sir?" Rain asked, tossing a few DVDs into her cart.

"Agent 13 confirmed that he went into his apartment about an hour ago and hasn't left. She can hear the radio running from the hall." Fury assured her.

"And he'd never leave the radio going if he left. So of course he's there. Did the apartment come with a tv? A good one?" she asked, tucking her phone against her shoulder to pull a box off a shelf.

"It's fully furnished. A brand new Tv, bed, couch, whatever he may need." Fury said.

"DVD player?" Rain asked.

Fury went silent and Rain could hear the clicking of a keyboard.

"Didn't think so." she said, putting a small box in with the DVDs.

"What are you planning agent?" Fury demanded.

Rain rolled her eyes and said, "You want him to catch up on what he missed. I'm helping with that."

"Why?" Fury asked.

"Because you haven't had any work for me lately. Not since that meeting in London." she told him.

Fury sighed and muttered, "Alright. Just don't corrupt him."

"I'm not Stark boss." she reminded him, ending the call and tucking her phone into her pocket.

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Steve looked over his shoulder as someone knocked on his door and turned down his radio before going to answer.

Nobody, except Fury, knew he had moved in and he hadn't seen any neighbors yet.

"Hey Steve." Rain said as the door opened. She had a backpack over her shoulder and a grocery bag in hand.

"I was not expecting you to stop by. Come on in." Steve smiled.

Rain set her backpack down as she glanced around the apartment. There was a tv but no DVD player, a couch, a decent kitchen and she assumed a nice bedroom and bath near the back. "Fury told me where I could find you. I hadn't really seen you since we got together at Tony's place so I thought I'd come by." she told him.

"I'm glad you did. May I?" Steve admitted, motioning to the grocery bag.

"Yeah. It's just stuff to make dinner with. Do you like stir-fry?" she asked.

"Never had it. But I'm not going to complain to a home cooked meal." he called, going into the kitchen. The bag was stuffed with vegetables, bags of various spices, a small bottle of oil and a few drinks. In another bag was a package of raw beef. "I'm going to put the meat and drinks in the refrigerator." he added.

"That's fine. I hope you have a large pan and some bowls." Rain told him.

"Yeah. I also have silverware, some food, mostly microwavables. I'm not a very good cook." Steve admitted, leaving the spices, oil and vegetables on the counter

"Do you have rice, a cutting board and knives?" she asked.

Steve opened a few cabinets and said, "Found both."

"Leave them out on the counter with the rest of the stuff would you?" Rain asked.

"Sure." Steve said, setting them down before walking back into the living room.

Rain was crouched down beside his entertainment center, connecting somesort of wire to his tv. "I'm hooking up a DVD player. You missed a lot of movies and tv shows while you were asleep. Luckily most of them are all on DVD." she told him.

"What's a DVD?" he asked.

She stared him for a few seconds before nodding to her bag. "Look in there." she told him.

Steve sat on the floor and reached into her bag carefully, not sure what was inside.

"I'm not hiding a Gremlin in there. At least not the real thing. I prefer the Mogwi anyways." she smirked.

He raised an eyebrow, confused but pulled out a stack of what looked slender books with a different picture on each cover. "Gremlins, Gremlins 2, A New Hope, Empire Strikes Back, Return of the Jedi, Phantom Menace, Attack of the Clones, Revenge of the Sith, Short Circuit, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory." he muttered.

"DVDs are disks that have a movie on them. They look like really small vinyls. And there should be one more that you'll know for sure in there." Rain said.

Steve reached back in and found another DVD that make him smile: The Wizard of OZ.

"I get this reference." he laughed.

"I thought you'd appreciate it. All of those and this DVD player are yours to keep by the way." she told him, turning on the tv.

"I feel like I should be making dinner or something as a thank you for all of this." Steve admitted.

Rain smiled and said, "You can take me out for dinner sometime. Pick one to watch and I'll show you how to work your new toy."

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Steve started when Rain nudged his arm. "Pause that and try this." she told him.

The bowl was full of rice, beef strips and vegetables, all piping hot and smelling delicious.

"What are those?" Steve asked, nodding to the wooden sticks in Rain's bowl.

"Chopsticks. They're a foreign eating utensil. I didn't think you'd know how to use them." she said, returning from the kitchen with a beer for him and soda for herself.

"I've never even heard of them." he admitted, mixing his food a bit before trying it.

His eyes widened and he stared at his bowl.

"Good?" Rain smirked.

"Better than your venision stew. It's spicy but amazing." he told her.

She laughed and said, "I'll teach you how to make it. Maybe in another day or two."

He raised an eyebrow and mumbled, "Another day or two?"

"You're not getting rid of me that easily. I'm not leaving until you see all six Star Wars, both Gremlins, Willy Wonka and these. Unfortunately these you can't keep." she told him, another stack of DVDs from her bag.

Steve stared at 8 DVDs, all of which had something to do with a boy named Harry Potter and three books like DVD cases that were all called The Lord of the Rings.

"You're going to kill me." he told her.

"Do you have anything better to do? Besides I can have Nat come over for the Lord of the Rings. She denies it but she has a crush on Aragorn. Personally I prefer Arwen." Rain said.

"Who?" he asked, once again confused.

"You'll see." Rain told him, pressing play on the remote to start Dorothy and her friends walking down the yellow brick road again.

Steve shook his head but leaned back against the couch beside her none the less.


	7. Chapter 7

_**Author: trying to set up for what Clint and Rain were doing during Winter Soldier. And I really love Bucharest... which I totally blame my love of wolves for. One of my favorite movies, Blood and Chocolate, is filmed in Bucharest. It's a beautiful city and I suggest watching the movie at least once. And I am bringing back some old friends.**_

 **March 30** **th** **, 2014**

 **Bucharest, Romania**

"Why are we never allowed to sight-see anywhere we go for missions?"

"Are you feeling okay? You just asked to do something other than the mission while on a mission?"

Rain rolled her eyes and glanced up one of the wolf statues the city was known for. "Have you seen this city? It's beautiful. Especially all of these wolf statues. Which I am taking plenty of pictures of." she said.

"I have the best view of the city. And wait until you see it at night." Clint smirked, leaning against the railing of his balcony perch.

"Don't rub it in old man." Rain muttered, turning to take an picture of the fountain.

"Hey you two. Enough chatter." Grey teased over their coms.

Clint smirked and said, "Shut up lover boy. You and Shane were supposed to be on your honeymoon."

Grey laughed as he thumbed through a magazine and said, "Not our fault that your two happened to be sent here and we decided to join up with you guys."

"When we're done here, remind us to take you two out for dinner. There's some beautiful restaurants in the city." Shane added, leaning against a wall.

Rain pulled her shades down a bit and whispered, "I'll take you up on that but in the meantime I think I have eyes on one of our targets."

"Which one?" Shane asked.

"Mercer. He's half a block down, in an alley by the coffee shop." Rain muttered.

"My left or right?" Shane asked.

"Right. Past the stall selling trinkets with the yellow tarp as a roof." she said.

Shane glanced over his shoulder slowly and whispered, "I see him."

"Headed your way." Rain told him, tucking her digital camera away in her backpack.

She was dressed like a tourist and her faked southern accent only added to the deception. Whatever accent she had as a teenager had disappeared over the years but she could fake whatever accent she needed like a pro.

Shane edged past the coffee shop entrance and to the mouth of the alley. "Hawk, you got eyes on us?" he whispered.

"Yeah. Rain's coming around the other side of the alley. Unless there's another exit I can't see, you'll be able to box Mercer in." Clint told him.

Rain pulled off her hoodie and tossed both it and her backpack behind a dumpster before crouching on top of the dumpster.

Mercer cocked his head as he stared at the young woman crouching on the dumpster. "Can I help you?" he asked.

"Actually yes. You can either come willingly and let us have a easy day. Or you can make us do this hard way." she told him.

"I have nothing to tell you." he said.

"Really? Because I think that you have some information for us." Rain told him.

Mercer scoffed and turned to walk away, to find Shane standing behind him and blocking the exit to the alley.

"Who are you people?" he demanded.

"It's best that you don't ask questions like that." Rain said, shooting Mercer with a tranq.

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Grey rested his chin on Shane's shoulder to read the file in his hand. "This guy's an asshole." he muttered.

"Yes he is." Shane agreed.

William Mercer had been born in America but had traveled to Romania at sixteen years old. He quickly became involved with the drug dealers of Bucharest, selling drugs to children and often using dirty needles.

Quite recently he seemed to have been involved with some possible remenants of Hydra or some similar organization, which made him a threat to SHIELD.

"He's a fucking menace." Rain growled.

Clint gently touched her back and whispered, "Don't jump the gun yet. We need him alive to talk."

"He's not that different from Kennedy." Rain told him.

Clint sighed and hugged her tightly. The people Rain hated the most were ones who abused children or harmed them in anyway.

Not that he could blame her though.

Grey nodded to the stirring figure on the other side of the room and said, "He's waking up."

"I'll go talk to him." Clint said.

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"You kidnapped me." Mercer spat.

"I don't think you're gonna be missed." Clint told him.

Mercer eyed the man who was watching him. The agent wasn't much taller than he was but he certainly was broader in the shoulder. He was dressed in jeans, a leather jacket and heavy combat boots. He had a gun strapped to his thigh and held himself like a man who knew how to use his weapon.

"Who are you?" Mercer asked.

Clint raised an eyebrow and said, "That's not any of your concern. In the meantime, tell me who you work for."

"That's none of your concern." Mercer mocked.

"You're gonna make us do this the hard way then?" Clint smirked, slipping a knife from his belt.

"Why do you hate me so much?" Mercer asked, eyeing the blade.

"Two reasons. The first: you sell drugs in dirty needles to children. The second: you work for an organization that threatens my organization." Clint told him.

Mercer smirked and whispered, "Hail Hydra."

 _ **Author: this is also gonna start some jumping around as far as locations go. And as far as I can tell Bucharest is about seven hours ahead of Washington, DC. But I could be a bit off. I will be posting chapters as they occur in chronological order.**_


	8. Chapter 8

_**Author: I'm back to playing with Rumlow. Why did this bastard have to grow on me? His appearance in Civil War didn't help at all. And I'm borrowing just a tiny bit from the back story for Frank Grillo's character from Purge: Anarchy. I have also decided to fan-cast Rinko Kikuchi, who played Mako Mori in Pacific Rim, as Yuki. This one is taking place is the very early morning hours.**_

 **March 31** **st** **, 2014**

 **SHIELD Safehouse**

" _Daddy! Daddy!"_

 _He smirked and crouched down to receive his two little girl's hugs. "Were you good for mommy?" he asked._

" _Yes daddy." they chirped._

" _Of course they were." his wife, Jeri, agreed._

" _Daddy? Are we going to the park now?" the oldest, Helena, asked, tugging on his hand._

" _Sure sweetheart. I just got to get out of my work clothes." he laughed, picking her up as Jeri picked up Ashlin, their younger daughter._

 _He didn't have time to register the shout of surprise from behind them before he felt the first bullet slam into his back, narrowly missing his spine._

 _Helena screamed as a second bullet tore into her tiny stomach. The third and fourth bullets hit Jeri and Maria... one in the chest and the other in the side._

 _The final bullet hit his back again, just below his ribcage._

 _Another gunshot deafened him and sent the gangbanger who had gotten a cop's gun to the floor, bleeding out._

Brock Rumlow shot up in his bed, gun already in hand and ready to pull the trigger.

"Brock?"

He swung the gun towards the woman standing at the foot of his bed.

"It was a nightmare. You're safe." she whispered, gently taking the gun from him.

"Not a nightmare... a bad memory." he muttered as he leaned against the wall.

Yuki ejected the clip from the gun and set them both safely aside before sitting at the foot of the bed. "Tell me." she said.

Rumlow sighed and muttered, "Before SHIELD I was a cop, over in Philly. I was married. Wife's name was Jeri. We had two little girls: Helena and Ashlin."

Yuki toyed with the hem of the over sized shirt she was wearing and whispered, "I had no idea. It was not in your file."

"I asked that it be left out. I didn't want people's pity." he scoffed.

She raised an eyebrow at him, inviting him to elaborate.

"One day in mid '04, Jeri and the girls came to meet me at work at the end of my shift. I had promised that we'd go to the park afterwards. The girls loved it when we went walking through the trees at the edge of the park... they'd pretend it was fairy tale forest or something like that. One of the other officers had brought in this gangbanger who had been caught on a B&E or something." Rumlow said.

"B&E?" Yuki asked.

"Breaking and entering. Anyways... we were about to leave. I was just going to go change out of my uniform when the 'banger managed to get a gun off an officer. It all only took maybe ten seconds to happen but it... felt like forever. The first and fifth bullets went into my back: one near my spine and the other just under my ribcage. The second bullet hit Helena into the stomach. The third one hit Jeri in the chest and the fourth got Ash in the side. Just before I passed out, another officer shot the bastard in the chest, right in the heart." he told her.

He leaned back, panting and wiping at his eyes. "That son of a bitch killed all three of my girls." he whispered.

Yuki slipped up beside him, wrapping her arms around him gently. She had seen the scars on his back from the bullet wounds but she had never thought to ask where they had come from. "When did SHIELD recruit you?" she asked.

"After I got out of the hospital. I tried to go back to work but I was too... violent and unstable. I got kicked off the force because I couldn't control my anger. I had been on for ten years and had fifteen years in the Marines under my belt even before that. Fury came to me and offered me something to do with that rage. I jumped on that offer like a starved dog at a steak." he muttered, stroking her hair.

"Fury reaches out to men and women who need a place in SHIELD the most. I was so angry because of my father had taken his own life when my sister and I needed him. Fury had been a friend of his... I don't know how long ago. But he offered me a place in SHIELD and promised that my sister would be able to become a Miko as she wanted." Yuki told him.

"What's a Miko?" Rumlow asked.

"A shrine maiden. She loves the Shinto shrines but she also works at a book store. Our grandmother was a Shinto priestess so we both spent a lot of time at the shrine as children." Yuki told him.

He nodded slowly. Religion wasn't his thing but... whatever floated people's boats.

" _Keep your 'lectric eye on me babe, put your ray gun to my head. Press your space face close to mine, love. Freak out in a moonage daydream.."_

"You have Jareth singing as your ringtone?" Yuki giggled, as he got up and grabbed his phone off the desk nearby.

"Rumlow?"

"Sir?" he asked, a bit surprised that it was Pierce and not Fury calling.

"Fury will be calling you with a mission soon. Pirates had taken the Lumerian Star but I believe they were hired by Director Fury." Pierce told him.

Rumlow nodded and asked, "What do you need from me sir?"

"Gather your STRIKE team, only our most loyal men. Fury will no doubt want it re-taken. Sitwell is on the Lumerian Star and so is information about Project Insight." Pierce said.

" _Well shit."_ he thought, glancing over his shoulder at Yuki before grabbing a pair of pants and a shirt from his duffle bag.

"You understand your orders agent?" Pierce asked.

"Yes sir." Rumlow agreed.

"Hail Hydra." Pierce whispered before the call ended.

"A mission?" Yuki asked.

Rumlow dragged a shirt over his head and said, "Yeah. I gotta get out of here and get to the nearest base. I need to meet up with a team and get to work."

"Be safe." Yuki told him as she put the clip back in his gun and passed it to him.

He kissed her cheek and whispered, "I'll see you soon."

 _ **Author: Cookies to who knows where Rumlow's ringtone is from and who Yuki is talking about.**_


	9. Chapter 9

_**Author: Finally we are at the point where I can bring in one of favorite characters who didn't get introduced until Phase 2: Falcon! I do like Anthony Mackie and I really love his version of Sam Wilson. His loyalty to Cap is wonderful and his interaction with Bucky in Civil War was awsome.**_

 **March 31** **st** **, 2014**

 **Washington D.C.**

Sam Wilson dropped down at the base of a tree, panting. It had been a long time since he had run that hard.

The other runner came back around towards him and asked, "Need a medic?"

Sam raised an eyebrow, realizing who he was talking to.

"I need a new set of lungs. Dude... you ran like thirteen miles in thirty minutes." Sam smirked.

"Guess I got a late start."

"Really? You should be ashamed of yourself. You should take another lap. Did you just take it? I'm gonna assume you took it." he joked, earning a smirk from the other man.

"What unit you with?"

"Fifty-Eighth Pararescue. But now I'm working down at the VA." Sam said, getting to his feet. "Sam Wilson." he added, extending his hand.

"Steve Rogers."

" _I thought so."_ Sam thought.

"I kinda put that together." he added aloud.

He couldn't believe that he was actually talking to Captain America. He had grown up with old stories and comics about Cap. When he saw footage from the battle of New York City, he had been amazed to see his childhood hero on tv with the Avengers.

"Must have freaked you out, coming home after the whole defrosting thing." Sam added.

Steve's eyes darkened and he muttered, "It takes some getting used to. It's good to meet you Sam."

Sam stared as Steve turned to go. He felt bad because he had probably just stuck his foot in his mouth by bringing up Steve's defrosting.

"It's your bed, right?!" he called out.

Steve hesitated, glanced over his shoulder and asked, "What's that?"

"Your bed, it's too soft. When I was over there, I'd sleep on the ground... using rocks for pillows like a caveman. Now I'm home, lying in my bed.. and it's like..." Sam admitted.

"Lying on a marshmallow." Steve added.

In truth, he hated the bed in his apartment. He usually slept on his couch or in his arm chair... if he slept at all.

"Feels like I'm gonna sink right to the floor." Sam agreed.

"How long?" Steve asked.

"Two tours. You must miss the good old days, huh?" Sam muttered.

Steve thought about it and shrugged, "Well... things aren't so bad. Food's a hell of a lot better. We used to boil everything. No polio is good. Internet, so helpful. I've been reading that a lot, trying to catch up. I watch a lot of movies too."

Rain had gotten him addicted to DVDs since she had stopped by and spent almost a week with him, watching all sort of movies.

Sam nodded and thought, _"I bet you spend a lot of time trying to catch up."_

Steve's comment on watching a lot of movies gave him an idea. "Marvin Gaye, 1972, Trouble Man soundtrack. Everything you missed jammed into one album." he told him.

"I'll put it on the list." Steve said, pulling out his little spiral notebook. He had been keeping a list of things that he needed to watch, read, try, etc... that hadn't existed in his time.

His phone chirped and he said, "All right Sam, duty calls."

"Thanks for the run." Sam said.

Steve smirked and said, "If that's what you want to call running."

Sam laughed, "Oh? That's how it is?"

"Yeah, that's how it is." Steve agreed. He was pretty sure he was starting to pick up some of Rain's strange sense of humor.

Sam chuckled and said, "Anytime you want to stop by the VA to make me look awesome in front of the girl at the front desk, just let me know."

"I'll keep it in mind." Steve grinned.

They both turned as a black sports car pulled up to the curb nearby. The driver was an attractive red-headed young woman who Sam reconized immediately as Natasha Romanoff from SHIELD.

" _Damn... this is better that bumping into senators while you're trying to cross Pennsylvania Avenue."_ Sam thought, staring at her.

Nat smirked and said, "Hey fellas, either one of you know where the Smithsonian is? I'm here to pick up a fossil."

As he walked to the car, Steve glanced over his shoulder at Sam. He figured his new friend would be checking Natasha out and he was right.

She was beautiful and very hard to ignore.

"That's hillarious." Steve smirked.

Natasha glanced past Steve as he got into the car at Sam. He was attractive enough, not over confident like Tony or shy like Bruce. Unlike most of her friends.. he seemed normal.

"How you doing?" he asked, eyeing her.

"Hey." she said with a small smile.

Steve smirked and said, "Can't run everywhere."

"No you can't." Sam agreed softly as the car pulled away into traffic.

He had just met two Avengers but he still had to go home, shower and go to work.

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"Did Rain tell you was going out of country for work?" Natasha asked.

"Yeah. She dropped by a few days ago to bring over a new batch of books and movies then let me know. Romania right?" Steve told her.

Natasha nodded and said, "Yeah. She and Clint are out there hunting."

"Would she be okay with you flirting with Sam?" Steve asked.

She raised an eyebrow and asked, "Your new friend?"

"Yeah Sam Wilson. Two tours with the Fifty-Eighth Pararescue. He works over at the VA now." Steve told her.

She gave him a smile and said, "We can flirt but we don't play with anyone else. Not unless we make sure everyone involved understands that she and I are together."

Steve cocked his head at her. "What?" he asked.

"Don't worry about it. Just know that a little flirtation here and there isn't going to bother us. And what about you and her? She's practically lived with you for the past three weeks." Natasha told him.

He blushed and said, "All we do is watch movies and talk. She cooks sometimes and tries to teach me. When she falls asleep, I put here in my bedroom and I fall asleep on the couch."

Natasha smiled and nudged him warmly.

 _ **Author: I figure that Nat and Rain have a bit of an open relationship but there are some rules to be followed by their new playmates. I understand that open relationships are not everyone's thing. And I love Steve & Nat's friendship in WS.**_

 _ **PS: my opinion on the fact that Cap was announced as a Hydra Spy in one of the comic series is as follows: I recognize that Marvel has made a decision but given that it's a stupid ass decision, I've elected to ignore it.**_


	10. Chapter 10

_**Author: Started watching Season 3 of Bitten so running I've got a bit of adrenaline in me. Thought I'd give this chapter an interesting start. The fact that I can't go out and waunder around because of all the storms lately hasn't helped but has made for a nice show when looking through the windows above my computer. Work's still pretty exhausting but I'm mostly being left alone during my shifts. Also my bday is tommarow/Friday so I will be spending the weekend with family.**_

 **April 1** **st** **, 2014**

 **Romania**

Wind ripped at her hair as her heart pounded in her ears.

Her boots skidded on a patch of ice and she bounced off the side of a tree, regain her footing.

Racing through the woods was nothing new for Rain, not when she had done it countless times.

She and Natasha had played a strange game of chase through the woods near the ranch house dozen times over, running until they were out of breath and too exhausted for their nightmares to torment them.

Clint had trained her how to track and how to not be tracked in those same woods. He had chased her more times than she could count and visa versa.

She and her father were always the hunters... never the hunted.

"Rain?"

"I'm here." she whispered, tucking herself behind a tree.

"Are you hurt?" Clint asked. He sounded as out of breath as she was, if not more so.

"No. You?" she asked.

"No... have you seen Grey or Shane?" he panted.

Rain peeked around the side of her tree and whispered, "Not since we seperated."

Clint inhaled and whispered, "Alright... just keep running. If you find either of guys, make sure they are safe. And if you can, keep one of them with you."

"Yeah... yeah." she breathed.

"Hey... be safe okay. I love you, kiddo." Clint told her.

Rain smiled and whispered, "Love you too old man."

Snow and dirt exploded into the air nearby and Rain jerked, calculating where the bullet had come from before forcing herself to stay still. Every instinct was screaming for her to run but she knew better than to obey them. Running from a bullet was the expected response, one that would cause more bullets to be fired. But if she kept still and silent, the hunters... the Hydra agents... might pass her by.

"Where is she?"

"Fire again. Flush her out."

About five feet from her left, the side of a tree shattered and showered her with splinters. She held her breath and squeezed her eyes shut.

"Again."

More dirt and snow flew into the air, this time about fifteen feet to her right. "You people are shitty shots." she whispered.

One minute..

Five minutes...

"The girl is either dead or gone. There are still three men to find."

"Take a few men back to the base and wait there. I doubt the men will be hard to find. Or they will come willingly if they find out the woman is dead."

Rain peeked around the tree as the Hydra agents split into two groups. One disappeared west while another, a smaller group, headed south-west.

"Dad? Grey? Shane? Can anyone hear me?" she whispered.

"I hear you." Clint said.

"Us too." Shane panted.

"You two okay?" Rain asked.

"Out of breath and sore but otherwise fine." Grey told her.

Rain nodded and said, "Track my com signal. A group of Hydra agents split off to return to their base. If we hit them there, we might be able to cripple them."

"Sounds like a plan. Be careful girl." Grey told her.

"You too." Rain whispered.

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"How many Hydra agents?" Clint whispered, nodding down to the bunker.

"Ten at least. The original group I followed here was only five. A group of three came back a bit later and another pair showed up just before you did." Rain told him.

"We saw the trio and followed them at a distance." Grey said as Shane joined them.

"The body is hidden but there's two guards. One to the south-west and one to the south-east. We can go hit them right now." Shane said.

Clint shook his head and said, "We hit the bunker first then worry about the guards."

"How do we do that?" Rain asked.

Pulling a few arrows from his quiver, Clint smirked and said, "Blow it up."

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Rain smacked a Hydra agent across the face with one of her escrima sticks and shouted, "You know we wouldn't have had this problem if someone had found the Hydra tracker on Mercer!"

Clint rolled his eyes as another explosion shook the ground and shouted, "I'll strip search the next Hydra agent we capture before I torture them!"

"Best use an EMP to fry their electronics too." Rain added.

Shane shot another agent between the eyes and called, "The things you two talk about during fights always amuses and scares me."

"Scares you how?" Clint shouted.

"You two talk about random things like you're at home, not in the middle of a mini war zone." Grey told her, stabbing a third agent in the chest.

Rain shrugged and said, "You say that like it's a bad thing boys."

"It's mildly terrifying." Shane told her.

She grinned and said, "Good."

"That all of them?" Clint asked.

They looked around at the dead Hydra agents and the flames shooting up from inside the Hydra bunker before Grey said, "Looks like."

"Let's get the fuck out of here then and try to reach Fury." Clint told them.

 _ **Author: okay so I did not write what happened to cause this but I hinted at it. And I didn't write the Lumerian Star scene because I'm lazy.**_


	11. Chapter 11

_**Author: this one is taking place about the same time as the last chapter but much earlier in the day because of the seven hour time difference between Washington D.C. and Bucharest, Romania. So this one is in early afternoon while the last chapter is set late evening. This chapter also give a bit more insight into what happened before the last chapter with Clint, Rain and the boys. And thank you Julia for the review and I hope you continue to enjoy. Welcome to my crazy world and enjoy your stay.**_

 **April 1** **st** **,2014**

 **SHIELD Headquarters, Washington DC**

Nick Fury cocked his head as his office door opened without a knock.

"You just can't stop yourself from lying, can you?" Steve demanded as he glared at the back of Fury's chair.

"I didn't lie. Agent Romanoff had a different mission from yours." he said, looking down at the tablet in his lap.

He had received an e-mail earlier in the afternoon from Rain expressing her concerns about her father. Clint had tortured one of their marks that they had caught to make him talk. The mark had been a Hydra agent but how willing Clint was to torture the man had scared Rain. This was a side of her father that she didn't recognize and one that Fury was afraid would rear it's head after Loki.

When Clint was younger, he had been sadistic and a bit unstable. His harsh upbringing had left him untrusting and extremely rough around the edges.

The years and a lot of help from Laura had turned him into the man Fury knew and trusted.

But since Loki had brainwashed Clint and used him as his personal assassin, Fury had been concerned that some of Clint's more sadistic tendencies might be reappearing.

"Which you didn't feel obligated to share." Steve growled.

"I'm not obliged to do anything." Fury said, putting the tablet in his desk drawer.

Steve narrowed his eyes and hissed, "Those hostages could have died, Nick."

"I sent the greatest soldier in history to make sure that didn't happen." Fury said, turning his chair around to face Steve.

Steve rolled his eyes at the flattery and quipped, "Soldiers trust each other. That makes it an army. Not a bunch of guys running around shooting guns."

Fury got up and leaned against his desk. He wasn't in a mood to argue. "Last time I trusted someone, I lost an eye. Look, I didn't want you doing anything you weren't comfortable with. Agent Romanoff is comfortable with everything." he told Steve.

"I can't lead a mission when the people I'm leading have missions of their own." Steve snapped.

"It's called compartmentalization. Nobody spills the secrets because nobody knows them all." Fury sighed.

"Except you." Steve accused.

Fury shook his head slowly, wanting to argue the point more but at the same time... he wanted to end the argument.

"You're wrong about me. I do share. I'm nice like that." he said after a moment.

Steve cocked his head as Fury walked past him towards the elevator.

Fury seemed distracted, something Steve had never seen out of him.

Steve was sorely tempted to ask what could be bothering the Director of SHIELD but he wasn't sure that Fury would actually answer or if he did... answer truthfully.

"Insight bay." Fury said.

The facial recognition softward identified Steve and a computer voice piped up, "Captain Rogers does not have clearance for Project Insight."

"Director override. Fury, Nicholas J." he muttered.

"Confirmed." the computer said.

Steve glanced out the glass at the view of DC and muttered, "You know, they used to play music."

Fury smirked and said, "My grandfather operated one of these things for fourty years. Granddad worked in a nice building... got good tips. He'd walk home every night, a roll of ones stuffed in his lunch bag. He'd say hi... people would say hi back. Time went on and the neighborhood got rougher. He'd say hi and they'd say, "Keep on stepping." Granddad got to gripping that lunch bag a little tighter."

Steve nodded, knowing a few neighborhoods like that and asked, "Did he ever get mugged?"

"Every week some punk would ask what was in the bag." Fury shrugged.

The elevator got dark except for it's internal lights as they descended below ground level. "What would he do?" Steve wondered aloud.

"He'd show them. Bunch of crumpled one and a loaded twenty-two Magnum. Granddad loved people but he didn't trust them very much." Fury smirked.

" _Neither does his grandson."_ Steve thought.

Steve looked out the elevator to see massive hangar, at least a mile across, built under the river. It had it's own road with trucks and cargo carts driving materials and supplies in ever direction. There were thousands of people working on and around one of the most amazing things Steve had ever seen.

There were three Helicarriers lined up in the hanger. There were rows of swiveling turrets on the side of the hulls and along the flight decks. There were also rows of Quinjets along the flight decks. Each one of them looked like it could take on an entire navy alone and win.

"I know... they're a little bit bigger than a twenty-two." Fury commented.

Steve shook his head is shock as Fury added, "This is Project Insight. Three next generation Helicarriers synced to a network of targeting satellites."

"Launched from the Lemurian Star." Steve whispered.

"Once we get them in the air, they never need to come down. Continuous suborbital flight, courtesy of our new repulsor engines." Fury told him.

"Stark?" Steve asked, not surprised to Tony was involved. These new Helicarriers would be like toys to him. To Steve, they were something very different... something he didn't think he liked very much.

"He had a few suggestions once he got an up close look at our old turbines." Fury said as they walked underneath one of the new Helicarriers and all of it's gun turrets.

Steve stared at a giant glass bubble with satellite and radar dishes on its inner surface.

"These new long-range precision guns can eliminate a thousand hostiles a minute. The satellites can read a terrorist's DNA before he steps outside his spider hole. We're gonna neutralize a lot of threats before they even happen." Fury explained.

Steve glared at Fury, disturbed that a project this big had happened without him knowing it and he didn't like it. "Thought the punishment usually came after the crime." he said.

"We can't afford to wait that long." Fury snarled.

"Who's we?" Steve demanded.

Fury looked at him and said, "After New York, I convinced the World Security Council we needed a quantum surge in threat analysis. For once, we're way ahead of the curve."

"By holding a gun to everyone on Earth and calling it protection." Steve accused.

"You know, I read those SSR files. "Greatest Generation." You guys did some nasty stuff." Fury told him.

"Yeah, we compromised. Sometimes in ways that made us not sleep so well. But we did so that people could be free." Steve admitted, staring up at the Helicarrier. "This isn't freedom. This is fear."

Steve narrowed his eyes. The whole point of the Avengers was the idea that you fought for the world you wanted... a better world.

You didn't just give up and stop trying to believe in what was right. Having bigger guns was't going to make the world a safer place... how did you know you could trust the people aiming the guns?

"Don't hold your breath." Steve growled, leaving.

 _ **Author: I decided to write this chapter because I really like the way Fury interacts with all of the various Avengers. and I don't know about Hawkeye's MCU backstory but his comic backstory is full of abuse and other horrible things. So until his backstory is revealed in the MCU, this is the backstory I am using.**_


	12. Chapter 12

_**Author: continuation of the last chapter so no time or date stamp. This chapter is a bit sad because of Steve's taking a couple of walks through memory lane. Thank goodness for Alex Irvine's novelization, which I realize is not quite perfect and I don't feel like watching through the movie for smaller scenes like these.**_

Steve parked his motorcycle out front of the Smithsonian and pulled a hat on to help hide his face. He loved the Smithsonian but going there felt strange now that they had put in an exhibit about him.

He felt like the world had passed him by and everything he had fought for was lost because SHIELD decided that better weapons trumped better ideas.

"Afternoon, welcome to the Smithsonian." the woman at the desk chirped.

"Afternoon." he said, inclining his head.

"Can I help you find something?" she asked.

He shook his head and admitted, "No ma'am. I know my way around."

The young woman nodded and returned to the tablet on the desk as he walked off. He pulled his phone out of his jacket and turned the ringer off... just to be respectful.

"A symbol to the nation. A hero to the world. The story of Captain America is one of honor, bravery and sacrifice." the voice over said as Steve walked by a giant mural of him saluting a flag titled _Captain America: the Living Legend and Symbol of Courage._

He stopped at a display showing pictures of him before and after he volunteered for the Super-Soldier project. "Denied enlightment due to poor health, Steven Rogers was chosen for a program unique in the annals of American warfare. One that would tranform him into the world's first Super-Soldier." the voice over continued.

Nearby a young boy wearing a Captain America shirt stared him and as he reconized him, his eyes widened.

Steve winked at him and put a finger to his lips. _"Our little secret."_ he thought.

The boy nodded, watching his hero walk away to a diorama of mannequins wearing Howling Commando uniforms. The suit and shield that he had been wearing when he came out of the ice were there as well. He had asked Fury to donate it since he had a SHIELD created one to use now.

"Battle tested, Captain America and his Howling Commandos quickly earned their stripes. Their missions: take down Hydra, the Nazi rogue science division."

Steve swallowed thickly at the picture of Bucky under the heading Fallen Comrade and then upon seeing a video of the two of them laughing together between missions. "Best friends since childhood, Bucky Barnes and Steven Rogers were inseperable on both schoolyard and battlefield. Barnes is the only Howling Commando to give his life in service of his country."

"That's right. But if Project Insight is where this country is going, what was that sacrifice worth?" Steve thought, waundering towards the film room.

He was sad to see how much Peggy had changed a bit between 1945 to 1953. "That was a difficult winter. A blizzard had trapped half our battalion behind the German line. Steve... Captain Rogers... he fought his was through a Hydra blockade that had pinned our allies for months. He saved over a thousand men. Including the man who would... who would become my husband, as it turned out." Peggy said, coming close to tears.

" _Lucky guy."_ Steve thought, staring at the tiny picture of Peggy pasted into his compass.

"Even after he died, Steve was still changing my life." Peggy said in the video.

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"You should be proud of yourself Peggy." Steve whispered, looking at the numerous photos on her bedside table.

While he had been frozen, she had gotten married and had children, then they had children of their own. Between all of that, she helped create SHIELD and conducted dozens of top-secret operations in Europe during World War II.

"Mmm... I have lived a life. My only regret is that you didn't get to live yours." she said, watching him.

Something passed over his face and she whispered, "What is it?"

Steve wanted to tell her about Project Insight but he couldn't bring himself to do it. Even if everyone else in SHIELD was spilling secrets, he wouldn't. "For as long as I can remember, I just wanted to do what was right. I'm guess I'm not quite sure what that is anymore. And I thought I could throw myself back in and follow orders. Serve... it's just not the same." he admitted.

"You're always so dramatic. Look, you saved the world. We rather mucked it up." she told him.

"You didn't. Knowing that you helped found SHIELD is half the reason I stay. And I've got a couple of friends there now... so now I'm not too lonely." he smiled.

Peggy smiled and took his hand. "Hey, the world had changed and none of us can go back. All we can do is our best. And sometimes the best we can do is to start over. And I'm glad you're not lonely." she said.

Steve got up to get her a drink of water as a coughing fit took her. When she got the coughing under control, she looked up at him and an expression of wonder came over her face. "Steve." she whispered, just like she did when he first walked into the room.

"Yeah?" he asked.

"You're alive. You came back." she smiled.

He sighed softly. It broke his heart to see her lost in the fog of age but he really didn't want to hurt her. "Yeah Peggy." he whispered.

"It's been so long. So long." she sobbed.

"Well, I couldn't leave my best girl. Not when she owes me a dance." Steve said, trying not to start crying himself.

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Steve leaned against the doorway of a meeting room, watching Sam standing in front of a group of people in rows of folding chairs. He was running a support group for veterans working through Post-Traumatic Stress.

"The thing is, I think it's getting worse. A cop pulled me over last week... he thought I was drunk. I swerved to miss a plastic bag... I thought it was a IED." a woman said, sniffling quietly.

"Some stuff you leave there. Other stuff you bring back. It's our job to figure out how to carry it. Is it gonna be in a big suitcase? Or in a little man purse? It's up to you." Sam told the group gently.

The woman nodded, wiping tears from her eyes.

Quietly the group dispersed and Sam embraced the woman before walking up to Steve. "Look who it is... the Running Man." he smirked.

"Caught the last few minutes... it's pretty intense." Steve said, nodding to the now-empty room.

Sam nodded slowly and muttered, "Yeah, brother, we all got the same problems. Guilt, regret..."

Steve read his silence and asked, "You lose someone?"

"My wingman, Riley. Flying a night mission. Standard PJ rescue op... nothing we hadn't done a thousand times before. Until a RPG knocked Riley out of the sky. Nothing I could do... it's like I was just up there to watch." Sam muttered.

"I'm sorry." Steve said because that's all you could really say.

Sam nodded and whispered, "After that, I had a really hard time finding a reason for being over there... you know?"

Steve glanced around at the meeting room and the files Sam was gathering: regular stuff for a regular job. "But you're happy now, back in the world?" he asked.

"The number of people giving me orders is down to zero. So yeah." Sam smirked. "Are you thinking about getting out?"

"No.. I don't know. To be honest, I don't know what I do with myself if I did." Steve admitted.

"Ultimate fighting?" Sam joked.

They both laughed and Sam admitted, "Just a great idea off the top of my head. Seriously you could do whatever you want to do. What makes you happy?"

Steve considered the question and muttered, "Well... mostly drawing and watching movies with Rain."

"Rain?" Sam asked, raising an eyebrow.

Steve pulled out his phone and showed Sam a picture of Rain, curled up on his couch in one of his sweat shirts and sipping soup. She had gotten sick the night before while visiting and he hadn't been willing to allow her to leave until she was better. Despite her half-hearted argument, she had let him take a quick picture.

"She's cute." Sam said.

Steve smiled and admitted, "Yeah... she is."

"C'mon. I'll buy you a drink." Sam said.

 _ **Author: Really do love Sam and how he interacts with Steve. I can't wait for him and Rain to meet. Especially can't wait to see Sam, Steve and Rain all together. This one is dedicated to all of our Vets.**_


	13. Chapter 13

_**Author: this one is taking place at the same time as the last chapter revolving around Steve and Sam, so again no time stamp. In the movie, these scenes are mostly all business but I am once again making Fury a not so aggressive pirate as my pal Overlordred calls him. Despite what the MCU tries to make Fury out to be, the character does appear to care about his team and Clint's family**_.

"Secure office." Fury said after returning to his office from the Project Insight bay.

Behind him, the windows' polarized and signal-baffling drapes closed them off. Other security measures that he couldn't see also started up and he knew there would be no electronic traffice in or out.

As he inserted the USB drive that Natasha had brought him into his terminal, he glanced at the clock.

It was past time for either Rain or Clint to check in from Romania. Even though it shouldn't concern him because father and daughter were both notorious for not checking in on time or at all, he was worried for them.

"Open _Lumerian Star's_ satellite launch file." he sighed.

A message appeared on the display near his conference table.

 **ACCESS DENIED**

A computer voice spoke the same message.

"Run decryption." he said.

"Decryption failed."

"Director override. Fury, Nicholas J." he commanded.

"Override denied. All files sealed."

"On whose authority!?" he demanded.

"Fury, Nicholas J."

Fury narrowed his eye and growled softly.

Someone had locked him out using a fake version of his own SHIELD identity profile.

There weren't many people who could do that... and there weren't many people he could go to for help. Some of them weren't even in the country at the moment.

He had known something was off about the _Lemurian Star_ and it's mission, which is why he had wanted Natasha to pull the ship's data. But now he was starting to think the problem went considerably deeper than he knew.

There was only one person he could ask about that.

Walking to the elevator, he pulled out his cellphone and dialed Rain's work phone. The knot of concern in his stomach would not go away.

"This is Agent Rain Barton. I can't come to phone at the moment so please leave a message and I will call you back as soon as possible."

He hung up the line and dialed Clint. "This is Hawkeye. I can't answer right now so leave a message and I'll call you back ASAP."

Fury sighed and said, "World Security Council."

 _ **-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**_

Alexander Pierce, current head of SHIELD and liaison to the World Security Council, was dealing with the complex mess left over from the _Lemurian Star_ mission. The other four councilors were present as holograms in his top-floor conference room, which looked out over downtown Washington D.C.

"If Nick Fury thinks he can get his costumed thugs and STRIKE commandos to mop up his mess, he's sadly mistaken. This failure is unacceptable." Councilor Rockwell said angrily.

"Considering this attack took place one mile from my country's sovereign waters, it's a bit more than that. I move for immediate hearing." Councilor Singh added.

"We don't need hearings, we need action! It's the council's duty to oversee SHIELD!" Councilor Hawley argued.

Councilor Yen broke in, "A breach like this raises serious questions."

"Like how did a French pirate manage to hijack a covert SHIELD vessel in broad daylight?" Rockwell demanded.

Pierce rolled his eyes, tired of their grandstanding. "For the record, Councilman, he's Algerian. I can draw a map if it's help."

Rockwell didn't react to his joke and said, "I appreciate your wit, Secretary Pierce. But this council takes things like international piracy fairly seriously."

"Really... I don't. I don't care about one boat, I care about the fleet. If this council is going to fall to rancor every time someone pushes us on the playing field, maybe we need someone to oversee us." Pierce told them.

"Mr. Secretary, nobody is suggesting..." Yen began, trying to ease the tension.

"Sir? Nick Fury is in your office and not in a mood to wait." one of Pierce's aids whispered behind him.

"Excuse me." Pierce told the council, willing to let them talk about him while he was gone.

"More trouble, Mr. Secretary?" one of the council asked.

"That depends on your definition." Pierce muttered as he left the room.

As his aide closed the door, Pierce greeted Fury with a smile and handshake. "I work fourty floors aways and it takes a hijacking for you to visit." he smirked.

"A nuclear war would do it too." Fury muttered, looking through the window into the conference room where he could see but not hear the hologram council. "You busy in there?"

"Nothing some earmarks can't fix." Pierce shrugged.

Nick sighed... he hated having to ask favors from anyone. "I'm here to ask a favor. I want you to call for a vote... Project Insight has to be delayed." he admitted.

Pierce raised an eyebrow and said, "Nick.. that's not a favor. That's a subcommittee hearing... a long one."

Project Insight was ready to launch.

The council wanted to see it happen and they wanted to see it happen now. Slowing it down wouldn't be easy... if it was possible at all.

"It could be nothing. It is probably nothing. I just need time to make sure it's nothing." Fury told him.

Pierce was curious to see how much he could get out of Fury. "But if it's something?" he asked.

"Then we'll both be glad those Helicarriers aren't in the air." Fury muttered, waiting.

Fury and Pierce had known each other almost as long as Fury had known Clint and both men knew that if Fury was asking for a favor, the issue was important.

"Fine. But you got to get Iron Man to stop by my niece's birthday party." Pierce told him.

" _Stark doesn't need his ego stroked anymore."_ Fury thought, shaking Pierce's hand.

"And not just a flyby. He's got to mingle." Pierce said, making sure Fury understood how big a favor he was asking.

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Fury pulled his keyes from his desk aned looked at his phone again.

There was still no calls, texts or emails from either Clint or Rain.

"Have you heard from Rain or Clint?" he texted Natasha.

A few moments later Natasha responded: "No sir. Is everything alright?"

"I'm not sure." he muttered, typing that to send to her as he tucked his keyes in his jacket.

Maybe a drive around the city would clear his mind.

 _ **Author: please keep the victims and families of the victims of the Orlando Shooting in your thoughts. I sincerely hope none of my readers or their families have been affected by this unfortunate event. If you were, I send you my best wishes and prayers.**_


	14. Chapter 14

_**Author: OMG... my internet went down for a night and playing videos on my iphone with the data was annoyingly hard because the vids wanted to buffer every five seconds! **bangs head against keyboard** At least the internet came back, my AC works (cuz it's hot as hell outside) and where I had a tooth pulled is healing. Anyways have a very long chapter with Fury being badasss, Bucky being bad and Fury worrying for Rain and Clint - whose misadventures I will pick up very soon. Oh yes... I saw Civil War again.**_

Fury had a lot on his mind.

Niether Clint or Rain had either answered or returned his phone calls.

They were two of his best agents and he knew he shouldn't be worried but he couldn't shake the feeling that something was very wrong.

The _Lemurian Star_ operation was looking more and more like he was on to something, but he couldn't be for sure because he couldn't access the data on the USB drive.

Being locked out of his own security clearance was a bad sign... it meant somebody had gotten into SHIELD that wasn't supposed to be.

The question was obviously: Who?

"Activating communications ecryption protocol." his car computer chirped.

"Open secure line 0405." he muttered.

"Confirmed."

Maria Hill's face appeared on a small holographic display in the upper left corner of his windshield. "This is Hill." she said.

"I need you here in DC. Deep shadow conditions." he told her.

She nodded and said, "Give me four hours."

"You have three." he said sharply before ending the call and slowing to a stop.

A police car pulled up beside him and the two officers inside stared at him. Their expressions were hostile and their eyes were hidden by mirrored sunglasses.

He didn't the time or patience to deal with any hassles from police. "Want to see my lease?" he quipped.

" _I've been spending too much time with the Hawk and his girl."_ Fury thought.

The light changed and the police car started to pull ahead of his as he pulled out into the intersection.

A car slammed into the left side of his car and as a second car rear ended him, his air bag deployed. The cop car he had seen before immediately reversed, crashing into the front of his car. His ears were ringing and in his dazed condition, he barely noticed a fourth and final car that collided with his passenger side.

These cops, or whoever they were, had him trapped.

His dashboard display, cutting-edge Stark technology, had already done a medical scan and showed an image of his body with the left arm blinking red.

"Fracture detected. Recommend anesthetic injection." the system reported.

He shook his head as he dug a syringe from the glove box and injected the anesthetic into his fractured arm.

Black SUVs skidded to a halt all around him and armed men deployed, all of them pointing guns at his car.

"DC Metro Police dispatch shows no units in the area." the car's system chirped.

" _Didn't think they would."_ Fury thought.

This was an assassination attempt which meant the infiltration of SHIELD had gone further than he thought... this was hostile take-over.

"Get me out of here!" he snapped as the men outside opened fire. The car was armored and the windows were bulletproof but they wouldn't hold up for much longer.

"Propulsion systems offline."

"Then reboot!" he commanded.

Fury could see marks on the windows from the bullet impacts. He had been in plenty of tough spots and his mind raced as he tried to figure out how he'd get out of this one.

The gun men outside stopped firing as four of them hauled a pneumatic battering ram from the back of a van. Fury inhaled sharply as they set it up right next to his window. "Warning: window integrity compromised.

"No shit! How long to propulsion?!" he demanded, scooting into the passenger seat.

"Calculating."

The battering ram slammed into the window and the entire car rolled back onto two wheels before it bounced back down. "Window intergrity thirty-one percent. Deploying countermeasures."

"Hold that order!" he shouted. He was starting to come up with a plan but it would depend on perfect timing. _"This is an extremely stupid idea."_ he thought.

The battering ram rocked the car again and he cringed. "Window intergrity nineteen percent. Offensive measures advised."

"Wait!" he snapped.

A third blow from the battering ram left the window completely spiderwebbed with cracks. "Window intergrity one percent."

"Now!" Fury bellowed.

A small machine gun turret unfolded from the console between the front seats. _"Too bad they didn't have this in Jurassic Park."_ he thought as he fired on the team outside. The window was so close to breaking that it did nothing to stop the bullets.

Once the battering ram team was taken out, he put a grenade launcher barrel on the turret and fired into the back of the SUV. It blew up in a huge fireball, catching two nearby cars on fire.

"Propulsion systems online."

"Full acceleration! Now!" he shouted, continuing to fire as the car slammed police cars out of the way and squealed down the street. Once clear of the ambush he snapped, "Initiate vertical takeoff!"

"Flight systems damaged."

"The activate guidance cameras!"

Rear-facing camera views showed up on his windshield and he hissed in pain from his broken arm as he slid back into the driver's seat. "Give me the wheel." he snarled.

There were still assassins on his tail and he not only had to alert Maria Hill but also get emergency plans in place for the team. "Get me Agent Hill." he said.

"Communications array damaged."

"Well what's not damaged!" he demanded.

"Air-conditioning is fully operationing." The car computer obviously didn't understand humor or sarcasm. "Traffic ahead."

"Give me an alternate route." he hissed.

"Traffic alert on Roosevelt Bridge. All vehicles stopped. Seventeenth Avenue clear in three blocks, directly ahead."

Fury used the car as a battering ram, slamming through stopped cars and pushing them against the commandos trying to kill him. They were out of their cars and firing at him again but he was able to stay just far enough ahead to get to the clearer part of Seventeenth Avenue.

His car was too damaged to stay clear for long and soon two police cars were on either side of him again. The assassins inside fired at him and he pressed back into the seat to stay out of their field of fire.

He slammed on his brakes at an approaching intersection, watching the two police cars rocket past him. A moving truck passing through the intersection crashed into both of them. "Get me off the grid!" he shouted, swerving onto a side street.

"Calculating route to secure location." the computer said.

DC was not only the home of the White House but also of SHIELD. For years the agency had been hiding in plain sight within the city. There was an entire network of safe houses and miniture bases in and around DC... not to mention quite a few agents actually had apartments or homes rented in the area.

Fury's eyes narrowed at a masked figure, all in black, standing the in middle of the road and watching his SUV accelerate towards him.

Aiming carefully, the man fired a small disk that skipped off the road and disappeared under the SUV. Fury heard a solid thud under his feet before the disk exploded, flipping his car upside down.

The man in black stepped aside as the car skidded by him on it's roof and skidded to a hault.

"Son of a bitch." Fury groaned, dizzy and in a great deal of pain. There was blood in his eye from cuts on his face and he was hurting in more places than he could count. He was pretty damn sure that his arm wasn't the only thing broken now.

As the masked man approached with a gun in hand, Fury dug in the glove compartment for a compact laster torch. There were a lot of tunnels under the streets of DC... which SHIELD frequented.

By the time the masked man got to the SUV, Fury was gone. All that remained with a smoking hole in the street.

Fury leaned against a tunnel wall several yards away, panting. He needed somewhere safe to go... somewhere surrounded by agents he knew he could trust. Part of him wanted to make his way out to the Barton ranchhouse but his loyalty to SHIELD wouldn't let him abandon the agency.

 _ **Author: sorry for taking a while to get this one written & posted**_


	15. Chapter 15

_**Author: Why does Steve have to be so adorable!? Seriously... he makes me want to hug him so much! I'm glad people love the Jurassic Park referance in the last chapter. The first one is the first movie I remember seeing in theater with my father so it holds a very special place in my heart. In the meantime... have some Steve pining for Rain. I do plan to crank out chapters regularly, free time allowing.**_

Steve parked his motorcycle behind his apartment complex and pulled out his phone. He wanted to call Rain but he wasn't sure if he could since she was on a mission out of country.

He had spent the entire afternoon with Sam: exchanging war stories, riding through DC and during that time he had told Sam a lot about Rain.

Afterwards Sam had laughed at him and told him that he was head over heels for her.

Despite this open relationship thing that Nat told him that she and Rain had going on, he didn't feel right asking Rain out for anything other than their usual movies and dinner. She was beautiful but he knew she had a problem trusting and being around men so he didn't want to try to pressure her into anything.

Sam had been understanding when Steve had told him that but still teased him a bit.

Steve sighed and dailed Rain's number despite not being sure if he should.

"This is Rain, sorry I can't come to the phone right now. Stay on the line for a second, leave me a message and I'll call you back asap."

"Hey it's Steve... I know you're out of the country for work. But I just wanted to know that you're alright. I met a guy who works at the VA that I think you'll like once you meet him. Um... I'll talk to you later I guess." he said, rubbing the back of his neck as he headed inside.

"Evening Captain. Haven't seen your lady friend around lately." the night guard at the desk said.

Steve tucked his phone away and admitted, "Yeah, she's out of the country for work."

"Lucky lady. What's she do?" he asked.

Steve bit the inside of his cheek and muttered, "That's not something I'm allowed to say."

The guard raised an eyebrow and joked, "Top secret huh? She a spy or something?"

"Something like that. Have a good night." Steve smirked.

"Night Cap." the night guard called before burying himself behind his computer again.

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"So sweet. That is so nice."

Steve nodded to his nieghbor Kate who had her phone tucked between her ear and shoulder as she held a laundry basket.

"I got to go, though. Okay, bye." she said, before dropping the phone onto her laundry and looked at him with a sheepish smile. "My aunt, she's kind of an insomniac."

"Yeah. Hey, if you want..." he began.

Suddenly he felt nervous. Natasha had been teasing him lately because he spent all his free time with Rain and she felt he needed more companionship. Apparently she had decided he needed a girlfriend. Unfortunately the girl he wanted was unavailable. But it had been a very long time since Steve had asked a girl out.

"If you want, you're welecome to use my machine. Might be cheaper than the one in the basement." he offered.

She raised an eyebrow and asked, "Oh yeah? What's it cost?"

"A cup of coffee?" he shrugged.

"Thank you but I already have a load in downstairs and you really don't want my scrubs in your machine. I just finished a rotation in the infectious disease ward, so..." she said with a sad smile.

"Well... I'll keep my distance." he said, catching what she trying to say without being blunt.

"Hopefully not too far. Oh and I think you left your stereo on." she told him.

"Oh... right. Thank you." he muttered, knowing that he hadn't left his stereo on.

Steve watched her leave before he carefully entered his apartment. Somebody had to be in his apartment and it didn't take long for him to figure out who.

Nice Fury was sitting under the single lamp in his living room, bloodied and exhausted. "I don't remember giving you a key." Steve said, raising an eyebrow.

Fury chuckled and muttered, "You really think I'd need one? My wife kicked me out."

"I didn't know you were married." he told him.

"Alot of things you don't know about me." Nick admitted, turning out the light. He turned his phone to show Steve the screen, which read **EARS EVERYWHERE**.

Who was listening? And why was Fury in his apartment after the argument they'd had earlier in the day?

"I know Nick. And that's the problem." Steve growled.

"I'm sorry to have to do this but I had no where else to crash." Fury shrugged, flashing his phone screen again. **SHIELD COMPROMISED**

Steve nodded slowly, thinking on his feet. "Who else knows about your wife?" he asked.

"Just my friends." Fury said. **YOU AND ME**

"Is that what we are?" Steve asked, not sure if Fury meant it or was just saying it for whoever was listening in.

Fury sighed and muttered, "That's up to you."

Suddenly something shattered and Fury cried out before collasping to the floor. Steve spun and saw a bullet hole through the window.

"Son of a bitch." he whispered, kneeling beside Nice who was on his back. He had seen a lot of gunshot wounds in the war and he could tell this one was bad.

"Don't... trust... anyone." Fury wheezed, handing him the USB drive Natasha had taken from the _Lemurian Star_. Steve tucked it in his pocket as Fury's eye closed..

There was banging on his door and he got up to answer it. It was Kate from across the hall, but all business and carrying a gun.

"Captain Rogers? Captain, I'm Agent 13 of SHIELD Special Service." she told him.

"Kate?" he whispered, slightly confused and a bit dazed.

"I'm assigned to protect you." she said, looking past him into his apartment.

"On whose order?" Steve asked.

"His." she said, going over to Fury and examining. She touched a comm in her ear and said, "Foxtrot is down. He's unresponsive. I need EMTs."

"Do we have a 20 on the shooter?" the voice on the other end asked.

Steve glanced out the window and saw a gleam of metal. Someone was moving on the roof of the building across the street. "Tell him I'm in pursuit." he told her, grabbing his shield.

He dove through his apartment window, sailed across the street and crashed through the window of the office building across the street. He shook glass off as he ran through the building, crashing through windows and doors to keep as straight of a path as he possibly could.

Most the interior walls were made out of drywall, which he ran through like they were paper. He detoured around a steel-inforced wall and still got to the other side of the building with the shooter in view.

"Bastard." he snarled, throwing his shield at the shooter.

It was a perfect throw, about head height and right on target... but at the last moment the shooter spun and caught the shield in midflight.

" _Shit."_ Steve thought as he watched the shooter hold his shield like a frisbee. His left arm was some kind of metal, which explained why he could catch Steve's shield so easily. There was some sort of dark paint around his eyes, which glittered with hate.

The shooter threw the shield back as Steve, driving him back several steps. A few seconds later he had completely disappeared and Steve had no idea where he could of gone.


	16. Chapter 16

_**Author: Okay so this is the last chapter revolving around Steve, Fury & the gang in the US for a bit. We'll be checking in on Rain, Clint & their two pals next. I don't know that I've told everyone but I have fan-casted an actress for Rain... or rather a particular role. Kyra from Chronicles of Riddick, played by Alexa Davalos, is who I believe is perfect as Rain. She looks & acts very much like how I imagine Rain to look & behave. As always thank you to my muse/friend/reviewer Overlordred. **_

_**April 2**_ _ **nd**_

 _ **Washington DC**_

Natasha touched Steve's arm gently as she joined him & Maria in the observation room.

"Hi." she whispered.

Steve gently wrapped an arm around her & said, "Hi. I tried to call Rain but her phone just keeps going to voicemail."

Maria looked at them & whispered, "She doesn't usually answer her phone when she's working."

"She warned me about that." Steve admitted softly.

Natasha squeezed him around the waist before slipping away. She was not a very affectionate or physical person with people outside of her immediate family... which Steve didn't quite qualify as yet.

"Is he gonna make it?" she whispered.

Steve had never seen her this emotional before, at least when she wasn't around Rain. "I don't know." he admitted.

"Tell me about the shooter." she told him.

"He's fast. Strong. Had a metal arm." Steve admitted softly. There wasn't much else to tell except that the shooter was in a black mask & black clothing but that was pretty par for the course. As Rain once told him, Black hides blood pretty damn well.

So naturally anyone who did a lot of dirty work... like assassins or SHIELD agents, wore a lot of black.

Natasha turned to Maria & asked, "Ballistics?"

"Three slugs, no rifling. Completely untraceable." Maria told her.

"Soviet made." Natasha whispered.

She knew something, Steve could tell but he wasn't going to ask her what... not now. They could investigate later. Right now, they needed to be together & hope that Fury would pull through. Natasha was just asking questions to keep herself distracted.

"He's in V-Tach." one of the nurses said.

On the monitor beside Fury, the numbers representing his vitals dropped... fast.

"Crash cart coming in!"

"BP's dropping!" another nurse said.

"Defibrillator! I want you to charge him to one hundred!" the doctor ordered.

Natasha inhaled sharply & whispered, "Don't do this to me Nick."

" _How am I gonna tell Clint, Rain, Laura & the kids you're dead?"_ she thought.

"Stand back!" the doctor snapped, testing the pads. "Three, two, one. Clear."

Fury's body jumped as the defibrillator shocked him. "Pulse?" the doctor asked.

"No pulse." the nurse reported.

"Okay... two hundred. Stand back. Three, two, one. Clear!" the doctor barked.

Another shock & Fury's body jumped again... then he lay still.

The numbers on the monitors dropped to zero... all the lines were flat.

"Get me epinephrine!" the doctor growled.

That was a last resort, a power stimulant shot entended to start the patient's heart beating again. The nurse gave Fury a large dose of it then pressed her stethoscope to his chest.

"Pulse?" the doctor asked.

"Negative." she whispered.

Maria inhaled sharply as the doctors & nurses all stopped working.

"Don't do this to me, Nick. Don't do this to me." Natasha pleaded, as tears formed in her eyes. Fury was one of the few people who saw the real Natasha Romanoff.

"What's the time?" one of the doctors asked, stripping off his mask & gloves.

"1:03, doctor." the head nurse whispered.

"Time of death 1:03 A.M." the doctor said.

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Steve stood a little bit apart from Natasha & Maria as they mourned Nick, thinking about the USB drive in his pocket.

Who could he trust to tell about it?

He was a soldier, not a spy.

Rain was good at this cloak & dagger stuff, not him. But she was in Romania... which made him want her in DC & with him even more.

The shock of Nick's death had thrown him off & he wasn't sure what to do next.

"I need to take him." Maria whispered.

Natasha nodded slowly & laid a hand on Fury's head. He, alongside Clint & Rain, had saved her & given her the chance to make a new life for herself. He had been a friend, mentor, guardian & in a strange way... a father figure to her.

"Natasha." Steve said softly. He had to ask her a few question & he felt they couldn't wait any longer.

She exhaled quietly & left the room without a word to either Steve or Maria.

"Natasha!" Steve called, following her out into the hall.

"Why was Fury in your apartment?" she demanded, spinning to face him.

"I don't know." he lied & the look on her face told him she didn't believe him.

There were footsteps behind him & Rumlow, who was in the hospital with the rest of his STRIKE team just in case the shooter tried to take another shot at him, whispered, "Cap? They want you back at SHIELD."

"Yeah, give me a second." Steve told him.

He had to finish his conversation with Natasha. She could help in ways most other people couldn't.

"They want you now." Rumlow insisted.

Steve glanced over his shoulder & growled, "Okay."

Rumlow backed off, catching the warning to give him a minute.

"You're a terrible liar." Natasha told him.

" _Damn right."_ Steve thought. He hated lying  & the fact that Natasha could see through him would maybe get her started looking into whatever had happened to Fury before he had shown up at Steve's apartment.

Then it occurred to him that she might be a part of it. Fury had warned him that SHIELD was comprised.

Who was still loyal & who was comprimised?

He hoped nobody he was close to... the agents turned Avengers that he called friends.

She watched him for another minute before turning on her heel, leaving him at a loss for what to do next.

" _Think like Fury."_ he thought.

A moment later, he had the USB drive stashed in a rarely used vending machine... because he didn't know what would happen when he got back to Triskelion.


	17. Chapter 17

_**Author: And we're back to Rain, Clint, Grey and Shane. I really do love what I have seen of Romania and especially Bucharest... as always I blame Blood and Chocolate for that. All conversations between the priest and the gang is either in Romanian or Hungarian but the rest of the time the gang is speaking English. This is taking place really early in the morning. Also it is supposed to be extremely cold in Romania in April, so there is still snow on the ground.**_

 **April 2** **nd** **, 2014**

 **Romania**

Rain shivered and pressed close to her father.

They had fled Bucharest and were hiding out in a church in one of the small towns nearby. The priest had simply looked at them when they knocked on the door and allowed them sanctuary.

His English was bad but Shane and Rain both spoke decent enough Romanian and Hungarian that they could communicate without many issues.

"I'm afraid we don't have much. But please help yourself to whatever you wish." the priest said as he set a pile of blankets down beside Grey and Shane.

Rain wrapped one of them around her shoulders and whispered, "Thank you."

"The food will be ready soon." the priest added.

"We appreciate it." Shane told him, wrapping a blanket around himself and Grey.

The priest raised an eyebrow at them but didn't say anything against their show of affection.

"I think you made him uncomfortable boys." Clint smirked.

Grey chuckled and said, "I already feel like a dick being here."

"You haven't been struck down yet." Rain pointed out.

"Neither have you." Grey reminded her.

She winked at him as the priest came back with a platter full of bowls and mugs. "Hot stew and warm drinks." he told them.

"Thank you Father." Rain whispered, picking up one of the bowls and setting it in her lap.

"There is plenty more so please eat much as you like." he added.

"What did he say?" Grey asked.

"Eat as much stew as you want. There's plenty more." Rain translated.

They ate quietly as Clint pulled his work phone from his pocket. "Fury tried to call a while back." he said.

"Do you have reception?" Rain asked.

"No. Check your phone." Clint told her.

Rain pulled her phone from her uniform and unlocked the screen. "I've got a call from the boss too. But no reception... and an almost dead battery." she whispered.

"No calls, no reception." Grey agreed.

"Mine's dead." Shane sighed.

"Why would Fury try to call us both? Other than that we didn't check in?" Clint asked, sipping the warm broth that the priest had brought them.

Rain yawned and muttered, "Maybe he knows something? Something revolving around why there was a Hydra base just outside Bucharest."

"Something's going on... it's gotta be. Hydra's getting bolder." Grey sighed.

Shane nodded his agreement and asked, "Why?"

Clint shook his head and whispered, "I wish I knew pal. I really do."

"This is not how I imagined our honeymoon going." Shane chuckled.

Rain laughed softly as she curled up in a pew. "Sleep well kiddo." Clint whispered.

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Clint's hand went to his knife as someone shook him awake. "Easy Hawk."

"What?" he yawned, blinking in the dim light. It was still extremely early in the morning... not quite sunrise but close.

Grey was crouched beside him and across the aisle, Shane was knealt beside Rain.

"We're taking off. Shane thinks it'll be safer for us to seperate. Hydra will be looking for four agents, not two sets of two." Grey whispered.

"That sounds like the FBI talking." Clint joked softly.

"It might be." Grey chuckled.

Shane stroked Rain's hair and whispered, "Take care of your old man, girl."

Rain groaned and buried herself further under the blankets. She hated the cold, even when she was home on the ranch where she could retreat into the warmth of the house.

"She won't be happy when she wakes up and sees you two gone." Clint told them.

Grey sighed and said, "I'm sure she'll understand. She's a damn good agent."

Shane squeezed his husband's shoulder and whispered, "Rain'll be okay... Clint will keep her safe."

"Take care of each other." Clint said, embracing them tightly.

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Rain whimpered and poked her head out of her nest of blankets. The sun was out but it was still extremely cold... even with a fire bruning nearby. "Dad?" she whispered.

"Hey little bird." Clint said, crouching down beside her.

"It's cold." she whispered.

He touched her face to make sure it wasn't freezing and admitted, "Grey and Shane left earlier."

She looked around and asked, "Are you coming back?"

"No... they decided that it might be safer if we split up. Hydra's going to be looking for a group of four agents... not two pairs of agents." Clint told her.

Rain raised an eyebrow and frowned.

"I told them you wouldn't like the idea." Clint chuckled.

As she sat up Rain muttered, "I can see the reasoning behind it. But no... I don't like it. We need to figure out our plan too."

Clint handed her a bowl of hot porridge and said, "What do you think we should do?"

"Find somewhere warm." Rain joked.

Clint laughed and teased, "I'm sure we could find somewhere. I'm sure it's warm near the Equator. Maybe near Costa Rica."

"I couldn't mind seeing some dinosaurs." Rain smirked.

They both laughed and Clint hugged her tightly.

 _ **Author: yeah... my Jurassic Park love is coming into play with Clint and Rain.**_


	18. Chapter 18

_**Author: I swear I did not intend to forget to update. But I have been busy with work, Final Fantasy BE and Pokemon Go... and it's annoying server issues. As always, thank you Overlordred for being my muse and everything else. And if anyone notices Rain becoming a bit like Harley Quinn... I blame my growing obsession with the upcoming Suicide Squad movie.**_

 **April 2** **nd** **, 2014**

 **Craiova, Romania**

Clint took a sip of coffee as he looked over the map of Europe spread across the table in front of him.

"Anything?" Rain asked, settling down beside him.

"There's a few places we could go. None of them in the US... at least no time soon." he muttered.

Rain nodded and whispered, "If Hydra can track us in the US, then we run the the risk of taking that trouble home with us."

"That's not gonna happen." he sighed, circling a location on the map.

"London? There's camera's everywhere." she hissed.

Clint glanced at her and whispered, "I have a friend there who could take us in. The organization he works for, the Talamasca, could help us disappear for a while."

"Talamasca?" Rain whispered, rolling the name around on her tongue. It was foreign but familiar somehow. "Why do I know that name?"

"Anne Rice used it for a group in one of her books. What she didn't know was that she was actually pretty accurate. They're a lot like SHIELD except very old fashioned. More books than anything else around there." he told her.

"Oh yeah... Jesse and David both worked there before they got turned. So are vampires real?" Rain whispered.

Clint grinned and winked at her but didn't answer.

"I hate you when you do that." she muttered.

"I'm thinking Italy." Clint told her.

Rain cocked her head and asked, "Why Italy?"

"There's somewhere safe we could stay. It's a twenty-three hour drive but... we might be okay." he said.

"How many borders?" she whispered.

"Quite a few." he sighed.

Rain looked over his shoulder and hissed, "Shoot a glance to your left."

Clint subtly glanced to his left and raised an eyebrow slowly. There were three men, all dressed in police uniforms, standing near a black SUV. "Cops don't drive bullet proof SUVs." he mouthed.

"I don't think those are cops." she hissed.

He nodded and tapped Italy on the map, to which Rain nodded.

As they watched, two more "cops" joined the trio. "Let's go." Clint whispered.

Rain nodded and got up slowly, being careful not to touch the Glock pressing against the small of her back. "There's an old warehouse about two blocks southwest of here. Plenty of places to hide.. us and their bodies." she hissed.

"I'll meet you there." he murmured, finishing his coffee.

Four of the "cops" climbed into their SUB to follow Rain, keeping a bit behind so not to look too obvious. They lingered in a few places to make it look as if they were just traveling on the same path she was but were sure to keep her within sight at all times.

The fifth approached Clint carefully since SHIELD's reputation proceeded it. "Planning a trip?" he asked in Hungarian.

"Considering one." Clint admitted, motioning for the other man to join him. Best to play this like he didn't realize that he was in the presence of a Hydra agent.

"Anywhere in particular?" the agent asked, sitting down across from him.

"London maybe. I hear it's very nice there." Clint shrugged as a waitress came over.

"I hear it rains quite a bit." the waitress piped up.

"I don't mind the rain." Clint admitted as the Hydra agent ordered a coffee.

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Rain ducked behind an old smelting pot and pulled out her Glock.

"Come out girl! We know you are a SHIELD agent!"

She rolled her eyes and muttered, "Idiots."

Gunshots echoed through the building and she winced at the sound. "Come out little girl and we will not hurt you too badly!"

"Heard all that before." she muttered, popping up and taking aim.

The nearest Hydra agent fell to the ground with a bullet between his eyes.

"Hello boys." she smirked as the remaining trio stared at their dead companion.

One grabbed an AK-47 from the van and opened fire as Rain rushed away to avoid getting hit. She vaulted over a metal table and turned it over to act as a shield. "Need a plan..." she muttered, looking around.

Old chains hung everywhere and there was more than enough metal for her to use as weapons. There were also old stairs and catwalks, most of which might just hold her weight... but not the Hydra agents.

"That'll work." she smirked.

Gunfire caused sparks on the metal as she ran up one of the sets of stairs. The metal shivered and groaned as one of the Hydra agents followed her in hopes of cornering her.

"Stupid girl. You will die and your organization will fall." the agent told her.

Rain rolled her eyes and grabbed a chain from above her, swinging up it. She and Natasha had turned the barn at home as their own personal jungle gym at one point so she could easily match Nat's agility.

The Hydra agent glared up at her as she dropped the chain around his neck and then dropped down beside him.

The catwalk made a loud cracking sound before giving way. The Hydra agent fell as the catwalk gave way and his neck broke with a very loud snap. "That's one down." Rain whispered, clinging to the chain.

Clint pulled a knife from his boot and threw it. The man with the AK-47 stiffened then crumpled to the ground. Metal fell to the ground nearby and a body dropped, dangling by a chain around it's neck.

"Rain!?" he shouted, not caring about the last man in the building.

"I'm alright! I just need some help down!" she called.

"Where are you?" he called.

"Look for the hanging body." she shouted.

He moved to stand near the hanging body and saw her clinging to the chain about fifteen feet up. "That's a long drop kiddo." he said.

"It'll only be about seven feet in a minute." she told him, slipping down the chain to where the body hung.

"There's still one more of these bastards unless you took him out already." Clint said.

"Not yet. You ready?" Rain asked.

Clint sighed and muttered, "We're both gonna need Tetanus shots after this."

"Yeah." she agreed, dropping down into his arms.

Clint staggered a little at the sudden weight in his arms but kept his footing as a bullet ricocheted off a piece of nearby metal.

"Found him." Rain said, pulling Clint's Heckler from it's holster. The gun was not meant for her smaller hand but she was trained to handle weapons that weren't meant for women.

The gunshot echoed as the last Hydra agent fell. The Heckler's recoil shot through Rain's arm and made her shoulder sting.

"Son of a bitch." she hissed, handing her father his gun back.

"You okay?" Clint asked, touching her shoulder gently. He could feel the muscles trying to lock up from pain.

"The recoil on that is a bitch." she whispered.

He chuckled softly and said, "I would say something but you might hit me for it."

"Damn right I will." Rain told him.

"Come on. Let's get out of the city. We've still got about a day's drive ahead of us." Clint said.

"We need a car. And tetanus shots." she reminded him.

"I can find both." he assured her.

 _ **Author: And Clint is still using the gun he had when Loki appeared in Avengers. I do not apologize for the Anne Rice references.**_


	19. Chapter 20

_**Author: hello my freak darlings! The voices in my head have been kinda quiet lately... unless Suicide Squad is involved... then they won't shut up. I am so looking forward to that movie. I have all my stuff for the cosplay, except the accessories which I don't care about. My new boots look awesome. On a side note: I got caught in the rain on my way to work one day and am now sick. So yeah... that's no fun. Skipping the convo between Steve and Pierce because I don't feel like writing it up.**_

 **April 2nd, 2014**  
 **Triskelion, Washington DC**

Stepping into the elevator, Steve dialed Rain's cell phone. He had been trying to reach her since Fury's death to let her know but so far had only reached her voicemail.

"I hope you've been getting my other messages and I hope you're safe, where ever you are. I just got out of a meeting with Alexander Pierce but I don't know..." he began, as a hand moved to block the door from closing.

Rumlow nodded to him and said, "Cap."

"Rumlow." he said, tucking his phone away as some of the STRIKE team filed in.

"Evidence Response found some fibers on the roof they want us to see. You want me to get the tac team ready?" Rumlow asked, raising an eyebrow as if to ask who Steve had been on the phone with.

Steve looked out the glass wall, staring out at the city as he digested his conversation with Pierce. He didn't know what to do next and really wanted a second opinion that he could trust on it.

Forensic analysis wasn't his thing anyways.

Let the scientist and techs do their work and then he'd do his. "No, let's wait and see what it is first." he told Rumlow.

"Right." Rumlow muttered, putting his back to Steve. The rest of his team had spread out to the corner of the elevator.

The hair on the back of Steve's neck stood on end and he subtly glanced around. This didn't feel like a group of guys who were just on their way to somewhere.. not when one had a hand resting on the handle of his taser.

That wasn't something an experience soldier or agent did... unless he was planning to use that weapon.

"I'm sorry about what happened with Fury. It's messed up... what happened to him." Fury said quietly as the elevator stopped and two more STRIKE operatives stepped on.

Fury had been a good man who had given Rumlow a chance when nobody else would have... they just ended up on different sides of the coming war.

"Thank you." Steve muttered, watching two of the STRIKE team fiddle with something in their hands.

" _Six... evenly spaced... me in the middle."_ Steve thought.

Another stop and two more agents, including Rumlow's second in command Jack Rollins, squeezed in.

Steve now stood in the center of a formation of eight highly trained and probably armed STRIKE team commandos.

" _You clever son of a bitch."_ Steve thought, looking at Rumlow.

Rumlow had tried to set him at ease while his men had set this whole thing up... but they had stuck to their tactical training too closely.

Rain... Natasha... especially Clint would have seen this set up coming from a mile away and probably would have never let it get this far.

Rain had warned him about Rumlow when he had told her about his first mission with Rumlow's STRIKE team over late night coffee and a re-watch of Willy Wonka. She had never liked Rumlow, viewing him as too mouthy and too volatile. He loved to bait people and that rubbed her wrong... but even after he tried to be friendly, she had never trusted him.

Pierce would have been in on this... or not but either way, they had known when to make their move.

Now it was time for Steve to make his.

The war had taught him to seize the initiative if you were outnumbered and couldn't choose the battleground.

Get the enemy on their heels for a moment to even out the numbers a little.

The best way to do that, Steve decided, was to turn their ambush against them.

As the elevator doors were closing he asked, "Before we started, does anyone want to get out?"

There was a long pause in which he tensed and prepared for a hit from any direction... then Rollins pulled out his taser rod and spun.

Someone got an arm around Steve's throat as he dodged the taser, which sparked against another commando... who collapsed to the floor.

Steve used the man holding him as leverage and kicked out with both feet, planting them in Rumlow's chest and kicking him back.

The entire team dove onto Steve at that moment like a pack of dogs.

One of them got a magnetic cuff around Steve's right arm but he fought to keep it away from the metal door frame and flung it away.

A second commando got another cuff on his other arm and pinned it to the door.

Rumlow smirked and wedged his taser rod against the small of Steve's back. As his few near run-ins with Rain and seeing how effective her electrified escrima sticks were, he had decided to try out something similar for himself.

And he liked them... a lot.

Steve's entire body lit up and he cringed. Rumlow's taser rod hurt but his suit gave him some protection. This was nothing compared to having one of Rain's escrima sticks pressed against his side with just a thin shirt, if that, as protection.

"Back off." he growled, snapping an elbow back and punching Rumlow away.

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Rumlow backed away from Steve... as far as the elevator would allow at least. The rest of his team was down, the magnetic cuffs hadn't worked and Cap looked pissed.

"Whoa, big guy." he said, holding up his taser rods.

Steve paused, glaring at him.

"I just want you to know Cap, this isn't personal." Rumlow smirked, lunging at Cap with the taser rods.

Steve groaned and got his hands on Rumlow, forcing him to drop the taser rods. He threw the other man straight up into the air where he smashed in the elevator's steel-reinforced glass ceiling and collapsed back down to the floor.

" _You had Fury killed... now you're trying to kill me too."_ Steve thought, glaring at the prone man.

"It kind of feels personal." he muttered, picking up his shield and opening the door.

A whole tactical response team was waiting outside, guns leveled. "Drop the shield and put your hands in the air!" the leader commanded.

"Um... no." Steve whispered, slamming his shield into the elevator's control panel, sending the elevator into a free fall. His stomach jumped into his throat as it jammed a few floors down. Wedging the door open, he saw more soldiers on that floor too.

"Give it up, Rogers! Get that door open! You have nowhere to go!"

Steve glanced out the window, swallowing thickly. The fall wouldn't kill him but it might hurt.

Rain would call him crazy for sure... best she didn't find out that had jumped out off a plane without a parachute not that long ago.

Glass sparkled around him as he fell the entire distance from the twenty-fifth floor to the atrium on the Triskelion's ground floor. His ears rang when he hit, shield first and tried to get his bearings.

No time to rest... he had to keep moving before Rumlow's team caught up to him.

 _ **Author: for those who need a refresher, Rumlow & Rain's weapons are similar. You can find images of both weapons online. For Rumlow's: search taser rod Brock Rumlow. For Rain's: Nightwing Escrima Sticks. - basicly the same thing as what Widow uses in Age of Ultron as well.**_


	20. Chapter 22

_**Author: Okay... time to hate Rumlow again. And time to hate Pierce too. This one was rolling around in my head for a while but got shoved to the side by the Suicide Squad. At least they aren't all playing around together in my head... yet. Though Harley is going: "I'm bored... play with me." Anyways... forgive the wait for this chapter. :Points at the Squad: Blame them.**_

Rumlow pressed an ice bag to his face and muttered, "I'm gonna kill him."

"You and me both boss." Rollins groaned.

Rumlow flipped him off and closed his eyes as the door opened.

"What the hell was that Rumlow? I gave you seven men and you couldn't take down Captain Rogers?" Pierce demanded.

He should have bit his tongue and taken his verbal beating like a good soldier, but he already had the hell beaten out of him once today.

"He's pretty damn skilled at close quarters combat sir. And in our defense, he is a fucking super soldier." Rumlow growled.

Pierce grabbed his jaw and forced him to look up at him. "I think you're distracted." he hissed.

Rumlow's eyes narrowed and he jerked out of Pierce's grip before memories began to try crawling out of the lock boxes he had them in.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Rollins asked.

"Yuki Watanabi." Pierce said, looking right at Rumlow.

A dangerous glimmer entered Rumlow's eyes and he hissed, "What about her?"

"We can't afford any distractions. Figure out how to rid yourself of them." Pierce told him.

"And if I don't?" Rumlow asked.

Pierce walked to the door and whispered, "I'll find someone who will. And they will make it much more painful than I'm sure you will. But do it in four hours."

"You son of a bitch." Rumlow growled.

Rollins stared at Rumlow as the pieces slid into place in his head. "Boss?" he asked.

"Get out!" he shouted at him, throwing the ice bag across the room. It collided with the window, leaving a small crack in the glass.

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Yuki groaned when the door to her room opened. It wasn't really even hers but for the moment, she was inhabiting it.

"Sitwell told me you made it back to base." a rough, deep voice said.

She sat up, squinting in the dark before her eyes adjusted. "I got back a few hours ago. They told me you were protecting Captain Rogers... and that Fury was killed." she whispered.

Rumlow sighed, sat on the bed and muttered, "We still don't know who did it. Or if they were actually after Fury or Cap."

Yuki touched the bruises on his face and whispered, "Who did this to you?"

"Don't worry about it." he told her, nuzzling her gently.

"Brock... I'm tired. I have not been sleeping well." Yuki sighed.

Rumlow set his weapons on the nightstand nearby, peeled off his shirt and whispered, "Then let's sleep for a while. I've got a little bit of time to spare."

Yuki nodded and stretched out, feeling him slip an arm around her waist and press as close to her as he could.

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Rumlow cracked an eye open as his watch beeped quietly under the pillow. He had been asleep for three and a half hours.

Pierce had given him a time limit of four hours.. which was almost up.

Yuki stirred and murmured as he slipped away from her.

He didn't want to have to do what Pierce wanted done... but if he didn't someone else would.

Some other Hydra agent... somebody she wouldn't love or even know... would hunt her down.

They'd torture her for hours... days... weeks to find out what she knew about Hydra... what he might have told her.

The answer, of course, would be nothing.

She didn't even know he was a Hydra agent... now she never would.

"Forgive me. But this is to protect you." he whispered, sliding his knife between her ribs and straight into her heart.

Her eyes snapped open at the pain of the knife in her chest then she immediately went still as death took her.

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The STRIKE team all looked up as Rumlow walked into the room. There was something about him that kept them all silent.

He eyed them slowly and asked, "Do we have visuals on Rogers?"

"Not yet. But we're pretty sure he has the flash drive of information from the Lumerian Star." Rollins said carefully.

"Then why aren't we looking for him?" Rumlow growled.

The team glanced at each other and then one of them whispered, "We were waiting on you boss."

"I'm here. So get your lazy asses up and let's go." he snarled.

One by one they grabbed their weapons from their duffles and filed out the door. Rollins would take them to the garage where they would all pick out various vehicles to go out and search for Cap in.

A door opened behind Rumlow as he pulled on a long jacket to hide his weapons.

"Rumlow."

"Pierce." he growled.

"You should show some respect."

That was Jasper Sitwell... what the hell was he doing here?

Well, where Rumlow as concerned, Sitwell could take that respect and shove it right along the stick up his ass. Pierce had given his choice, or lack of, to either kill Yuki himself or live with the knowledge of what someone else would do to her. He was not happy with his superiors.

"Did you rid yourself of that distraction we talked about?" Pierce asked.

Rumlow smirked dangerously then turned to face Pierce, pulling out his gun and pulling the trigger.

The bullet lodged itself in the wall between Pierce and Sitwell... right at head level.

 _ **Author: So not as long as some other chapters but I'm a little out of practice writing MCU & I really didn't want to write up some of this chapter. But for the sake of the story & for future friction between characters, it had to happen.**_


	21. Chapter 23

_**Author: You guys should all be thanking my fiance for buying Civil War and having it playing when I came home from work. It was apparently the kick in the ass I needed to dive head first back into the MCU... for the moment. I solemnly swear that I will do my best not to abandon this story... and that I am up to no good. :) Anyways, my freaky darlings... enjoy.**_

Steve almost jumped when he saw Natasha's reflection appear in the glass over his shoulder.

He had spent two weeks at the Retreat and the past three practically living alongside Rain... who moved silently and quickly... like a good SHIELD agent should. At the Retreat, she had snuck up on him a lot before she began to intentionally make noise so he knew she was there. When she stayed with him at his apartment, she went back to her old habit of sneaking up on him. But since he trusted her now, it didn't catch him off guard as much.

Natasha watched Steve as he glared at her and allowed him to drag her into a room off the main hallway. She narrowed her eyes when he shoved her against the wall.

"Where is it?" he growled, shoving his hood back.

"Safe." she told him, trying to step out of his grip.

Steve shoved her back against the wall and demanded, "Do better."

"Where did you get it?" she asked.

She wasn't scared of Steve and she told him so with her eyes. More dangerous men than him had tried to terrify her and all had failed.

"Why should I tell you?" he hissed.

The answer hit Natasha like a punch in the stomach and she whispered, "Fury gave it to you. Why?"

Steve raised an eyebrow. If she knew that Fury had given him the flash drive... she might know other things too. "What's on it?" he asked.

"I don't know." she told him.

"Stop lying." he hissed, not believing her.

"I only act like I know everything, Rogers." she smirked. It was an act that kept people guessing about her and made her dangerous in the eyes of many people.

Steve narrowed his eyes at her smirk and growled, "I bet you knew Fury hired the pirates. Didn't you?"

It wasn't making sense to Steve.

Why would Fury send him and the rest of the team into harms way intentionally?

Natasha shrugged and said, "It makes sense. The ship was dirty. Fury needed a way in and so do you."

Steve stared at her and realized that was the difference between them.

Natasha was never surprised when people did the wrong thing... or the risky thing.

Did he actually know her at all?

Could he trust her?

As he far as he could tell, she was playing some game with him and he didn't like it.

He needed to know what she knew about Fury's death. And he needed to know it now.

"I'm not going to ask you again." he growled.

Natasha paused, staring into his eyes. He was pissed and rightfully so.

Fury was dead.

The identity of his shooter was a mystery... at least to him.

SHIELD itself seemed to be turning against him.

Neither Rain nor Clint were reachable, which bothered her a bit and was especially bothering Steve.

"I know who killed Fury. Most of the intelligence community doesn't believe he exists. The ones that do call him the Winter Soldier. He's credited with over two dozen assassinations in the last fifty years." Natasha admitted.

A fifty year career for an assassin was almost unheard of, unless the assassin was another Enhanced or there was some sort of life-extension technology involved... which Steve doubted.

Natasha knew that Clint had a twenty four year career under his belt with a few years of free-lance and the rest being one of SHIELD's top snipers. Put a weapon in the man's hands and he would figure out how to load it, use it, take it apart, clean it and then put it back together in a few minutes.

"So he's a ghost story." Steve muttered.

She sighed and said, "Five years ago, I was escorting a nuclear engineer out of Iran. Somebody shot out my tires near Odessa. We lost control and went straight over a cliff. I pulled us out... but the Winter Soldier was there. I was covering my engineer... so he shot him... through me."

She lifted her shirt to show him the scar just above her left hip and added, "Soviet slug. No rifling. Bye-bye bikinis."

"Yeah... I bet you look terrible in them now." Steve muttered.

Natasha ignored his comment and said, "Going after him is a dead end. I know. I've tried."

Steve raised an eyebrow as she held up the flash drive and added, "Like you said... he's a ghost story."

"Let's go see what the ghost wants." he said, taking the flash drive.

Natasha slipped out of his grip, looked him over and said, "You need a new wardrobe."

"What?" he asked, tucking the flash drive in his hoodie.

She rolled her eyes and asked, "Didn't Rain ever take you shopping?"

"For DVDs and books. And for boots... once. She dragged me into a place called Hot Topic but we didn't find anything." he told her.

"Hot Topic... of course. Rain only loves to shop for weapons, hunting gears, anything edgy or punkish and DVDS." Natasha sighed.

"Punkish?" Steve asked, feeling very confused.

She laughed and said, "Most of what Hot Topic sells is punkish."

"Oh..." he muttered.

 _ **Author: Yes I love Hot Topic. Sue me. And the idea of Steve getting dragged into one is cute.**_


	22. Chapter 24

_**Author: Some quality time between two of Rain's favorite people. And I don't apologize for my love of other fandom's coming out to play. Sorry it's been awhile since an update. Been busy with work, looking at house & most recently being sick... not just in the head. :)**_

"First rule of going on the run is don't run, walk." Natasha said as they walked through one of the DC's many huge shopping malls.

She was completely at ease... having done something like this who knew how many times before.

"If I run in these shoes, they're gonna fall off." Steve muttered, unable to shake the feeling that everyone was staring at him.

Natasha had dressed him like some sort of hipster: a second hoodie, a ball cap, shoes that felt like they were made of paper and fake glasses with big black plastic frames.

When he had put on the glasses, she had teased him that if he had green eyes, dark hair and a lightning bolt scar, he'd look like Harry Potter.

At just about any other time he might have laughed since Rain had made sure he watched all eight movies and read all seven books.

He still didn't understand why the werewolf in the third movie looked so different from the description in the book.

"In here." Natasha whispered, nudging him into a computer store.

It was one of those stores where nobody complained if you fooled around with the machine as much as you wanted. It was their idea of helping convinced people to buy one.

"This drive has a level six homing program, so as soon as we boot up, SHIELD will know exactly where we are." Natasha whispered.

Steve looked around uneasily and asked, "How much time will we have?"

The back of a store in a mall seemed like a bad place to be if you were trying to avoid pursuit. Rain had told him to always stick to open public places where you could disappear into the crowd if you needed to.

Natasha inserted the flash drive and said, "About nine minutes from now. Fury was right about that ship though. Somebody is definitely trying to hide something. This drive is protected by some sort of AI. Damn thing keeps rewriting itself to counter my commands."

"Can you override it?" Steve asked, leaning over her shoulder.

"The person who developed this is slightly smarter than me. Slightly. I'm gonna try running a tracer." she said as she worked.

A new program spawned on the screen and started probing the drive's security. "This is a program that SHIELD developed to track hostile malware, so if we can't read the file, maybe we can find out where it came from." she explained.

Steve nodded.

At least that would give them something to go on.. which was better than nothing.

"Can I help you guys with anything?" a store employee asked, coming over.

The change in Natasha was immediate and left Steve's head reeling. "Oh, no. My fiance was just helping me with some honeymoon destinations." she smiled, squeezing his shoulders affectionately.

"Right. We're getting married." Steve nodded as he tried to go along with the story.

"Congratulations. Where are you guys thinking about going?" the employee asked, glancing at the screen Natasha was working on.

"New Jersey." Steve said.

" _New Jersey? What the hell is in New Jersey?"_ Natasha thought, chewing on her lip.

"Oh." the employee said in a way that told Steve that it wasn't a common honeymoon destination.

Steve cocked his head as the employee stared at him. _"Please don't let this turn into a fight."_ he thought.

"I have those exact same glasses." the employee told him.

Steve nodded and Natasha said, "Wow... you guys are practically twins."

"Yeah... I wish." he said, pointing at Steve admiringly. "Specimen. If you guys need anything, I've been Aaron."

Aaron went off to help other customers and Steve turned back to Natasha. "You said nine minutes. Come on." he said, looking at his watch.

"Relax. Got it." Natasha smirked.

Steve leaned in as the screen showed a magnified image of a complex in Wheaton, New Jersey.

"You know it?" Natasha asked, watching emotions play across his face.

"I used to. Let's go." he told her as he pulled the flash drive from the computer.

Natasha stuck close as Steve glanced around. He had spotted someone but he wasn't being subtle about it.

"Standard tac team. Two behind, two across and two coming straight at us. If they make us, I'll engage. You hit the south escalator to the metro." he told her softly.

Natasha tensed and said, "Shut up and put your arm around me. Laugh at something I said."

"What?" Steve asked.

"Do it." she told him sharply.

He did so and the laugh sounded so horribly fake to his ears but the two STRIKE commandos walked right by them without a second glance.

"How did you?" Steve whispered.

"Shut up." she growled, pulling him onto the escalator going down.

A quick glance down brought Rumlow into her field of vision.

"Kiss me." she said, turning to look at Steve.

"What?" Steve demanded.

"Public displays of affection make people very uncomfortable." she told him as if it was the most obvious thing in the entire world.

"Yes they do." he agreed as she grabbed him and laid a kiss on him. He made a soft sound in the back of his throat and found himself wished that it was Rain, not Natasha kissing him.

Rumlow passed by on the escalator next to them, not taking any notice of them.

As soon as Natasha saw that Rumlow was gone, she let Steve go and turned away. "Still uncomfortable?" she teased.

"It's not exactly the word I would use." Steve said, following her towards the nearest exit.

" _I just kissed my would-be girlfriend's girlfriend."_ he thought.

 _ **Author: And he liked it! Why do Steve and Nat have to have so much chemistry!?**_


	23. Chapter 25

_**Author: As always, my freaky darlings, I'm alive! Been preoccupied with so much other stuff. But on a side note: I'm seeing my sister Friday night! And we're going to see Rocky Horror. And because I've been watching Morticia Addams knit, I am thinking about taking it up. Enjoy another chapter. snaps fingers**_

Natasha smirked as she looked over at Steve and asked what had been on her mind since the mall. "Where did Captain America learn to steal a car?"

"Nazi Germany." he admitted.

She nodded, almost expecting him to say Rain had taught him.

Steve shot a glance her way and added, "We're borrowing. Take your fee off the dash."

" _Such a boy scout."_ she thought.

Chuckling she said, "I have a question for, which you do not have to answer. Though I feel like, if you don't answer it... you're kind of answering it. You know?"

"What?" he sighed.

"Was that your first kiss since 1945?" she teased.

He rolled his eyes, glancing at her then back at the road. "Really Natasha?" he asked.

"What? Rain hasn't told me anything that goes on between you two." she told him.

Steve chuckled and said, "Nothing's gone on between us."

"You're very special to her." Natasha smiled.

He sighed and admitted, "It's kind of hard to find someone with shared life experience."

"You could always just make something up." she shrugged.

"Like you?" he asked.

She raised an eyebrow, not sure if she should be insulted. Instead, she shrugged it off. "I don't know. The truth is a matter of circumstance. It's not all things to all people, all the time. Neither am I." she admitted.

Steve shot a glance at her, wondering what she had been through to put such a cynical spin on the way she saw the world. "That's a tough way to live." he whispered.

"It's a good way not to die though." she muttered with a distant expression.

He could sympathize but he had to know who he could count on... and her evasions were making him nervous.

"You know... it's kind of hard to trust someone when you don't know who that person really is." he told her.

She nodded, smirked then asked, "Who do you want me to be?"

Steve was cocked his head curiously.

How could someone choose who they were?

He certainly couldn't and it made him wonder about Rain. If Natasha could do it... she probably could too.

"How about a friend?" he asked, keeping it simple.

Natasha almost laughed and teased, "Well there's a chance you might be in the wrong business, Rogers."

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Steve parked the truck at a gate next to a guardhouse with peeling paint and a visible hole in the roof. "This is it?" Steve asked.

Natasha glanced at her GPS and said, "The file came from these coordinates."

"So did I. This is the camp where I was trained." Steve whispered.

"Change much?" she asked.

"A little." he admitted as he remembered training there.

The drill sergeants shouting... the marching... the combat drills... all before he gone to the war and never made it home..

"This is a dead end. Zero heat signatures, wave... not even radio. Whoever wrote the file must have used a router to throw people off." Natasha said, observing the camp.

Steve didn't reply, too busy looking at an ordnance storage building.

"What is it?" she asked.

"Army regulations forbid storing munitions within five hundred yards of the barracks. This building is in the wrong place." he said, breaking the lock with his shield.

Natasha kept close as they descended the staircase and flicked a light switch... that surprisingly worked.

"This is SHIELD... maybe where it started." Steve said, having been in bases like this before.

It was another early Stark-style base, one like where he had more or less been created. They always looked like regular military on the surface but if you dug a little deeper, there was always something going on.

"There's Stark's father." Natasha whispered, pointing to a large oil portrait.

"Howard." Steve agreed.

"Who's the girl?" Natasha asked, looking up a picture beside Howard's.

Steve inhaled sharply at the sight of Peggy Carter. She had known how important her job was... even before the founding of SHIELD. Every time he saw a picture of her, it reminded him of just how much he had missed.

Natasha looked up at him but didn't say anything. She would let him talk if he wanted to.

 _ **Author: just in case of no more post for a while... enjoy the witching season, have a blessed Samhaim and safe halloween.**_


	24. Chapter 28

_**Author: I'm back! Work has been crazy & exhausting so when I'm not working, I'm usually sleeping or relaxing. Unfortunately I have not had the energy to do any writing. But now that I have two more days off & since I called in sick today, I was able to write this chapter & maybe get one more written for later posting. And remember Long Before The Hawk We Know is now on AO3. **_

Steve cocked his head a little at the cobwebs that appeared to be blowing out from between two shelves.

It wasn't normal and as Rain had told him multiple times, seeing the abnormalities in things should be second nature.

"If you're already working in a secret office..." he asked as he pushed the shelves aside. "Why do you need to hide the elevator?"

"Yay for secret doors." Natasha smirked, pulling out her phone and letting it scan the keypad.

" _8539\. Wonder what the significance is."_ she thought as they rode down in silence.

Steve hesitated as the doors opened to admit them into a dimly lit room. "Is it sad that I'm expecting there to be zombies? Or a klaxon?" he whispered as they walked in.

"Did Rain make you watch Walking Dead?" Natasha asked.

"Resident Evil and Silent Hill." he clarified.

She nodded, shivering as the elevator doors slid shut behind them.

Once the lights came on they could see that the room was full of computers... really old... really big computers. Steve could almost recoginze them from before he'd gone into the ice.

"Howard would have laughed at these. Tony would call an antique dealer to haul them away." Steve thought.

"This can't be the data point. The technology is ancient." Natasha chuckled before she noticed a small dock for USB port sitting on the dusty table. Someone had been there recently... which concerned her.

Steve paused behind her as she inserted the flash drive into the port.

All around them, the old machines whirred to life with beeps and flashing lights. "INITIALIZE SYSTEM?" appeared on one the screens.

"Y-E-S spells yes." Natasha said as she typed. Then with a smirk added, "Shall we play a game?"

Steve looked at her and she said, "It's from a movie that was really..."

"I know, I saw it. Rain told me her father likes it." Steve assured her. He had thought War Games had been goofy but that was mostly because he didn't trust computers.

" _Yes Clint does."_ Natasha thought. After the kids were in bed, the four of them had settled down in the living room to watch that movie quite a few times.

A face made of flickering green lights appeared on the largest monitor as a camera swiveled towards Steve. "Rogers, Steven, born 1918." an eeriely familiar voice said.

Natasha jumped when the camera turned to her and the voice said, "Romanoff, Natalia Alianovna, born 1984."

" _Natalia Alianovna?"_ Steve thought.

"It's some kind of recording." Natasha said, shaken that it knew her real name.

"I am not a recording, Fraulein. I may not be the man I was when the captain took me prisoner in 1945. But I am." the voice told her as a mug shot appeared on another monitor that Steve remembered from the war.

"You know this thing?" Natasha asked, looking at Steve who seemed confused, angry and shaken.

Steve nodded, walked around the back of the machine and whispered, "Arnim Zola was a German scientist who worked for the Red Skull. He's been dead for years."

"First correction: I am Swiss. Second: look around you... I have never been more alive. In 1972, I received a terminal diagnosis. Science could not keep my body alive. My mind, however, was worth saving... on 200,000 feet of data banks. You are standing in my brain." Zola told them.

"How did you get here?" Steve asked, having walked all the way around the back of monitors and rejoined Natasha... Natalia.

"Invited." Zola said.

Natasha shook her head, trying to process everything and said, "It was Operation Paperclip after World War II. SHIELD recruited German scientists with strategic value."

She remembered the two weeks that she, Rain and Clint has spent pulling boxes of old audio recordings, photographs and countless other documents out of the attic and going through them. Most of them had been marked with the SHIELD logo but others had been more... personal files that Clint had whisked away to read through in private.

"They thought I could help their cause. I also helped my own." Zola added.

"Hydra died with the Red Skull." Steve snapped, not wanting to believe what he was hearing.

"Cut off one head, two more shall take it's place." Zola told him smuggly, showing them first HYDRA's insignia then making two of his facial image appear on the screen instead of one.

"Prove it." Steve growled.

Another monitor lit up, showing an image of Red Skull before scrolling through a montage of film footage from War World II and then the years after. Steve saw himself in some of it, back in the war.

"Hydra was founded on the belief that humanity could not be trusted with it's own freedon. What we did not realize was that if you try to take that freedom, they resist. The war taught us much. After the war, SHIELD was founded and I was recruited. The new HYDRA grew, a beautiful parasite inside SHIELD. For seventy years, HYDRA has been secretly feeding crisis, reaping war and when history did not cooperate, history was changed." Zola spoke over the film montage.

"That's impossible. SHIELD would have stopped you." Natasha whispered, appalled by what she saw.

Newspaper articles about Howard and Maria Stark dieing in a car accident flashed on the screen and Zola said, "Accidents will happen. Hydra created a world so chaotic that humanity is finally ready to sacrificie it's freedom to gain it's security. Once a purification process is complete, Hydra's new world order will rise."

Steve shook his head as images of the Project Insight Helicarriers appeared on the screen. He would have never imagined that SHIELD would be comprised by HYDRA... maybe nobody had.

"We won, Captain. Your death amounts to the same as your life... a zero sum." Zola laughed.

In a sudden fit on anger, Steve punched the monitor. The glass shattered in the center and more cracks spider webbed out. But it didn't help his anger or silence Zola.

"As I was saying..." Zola went on from a different monitor.

"What's on this drive?" he snapped, wanting to punch something else.

"Project Insight requires insight... so I wrote an algorithm." Zola told them.

"What kind of algorithm? What does it do?" Natasha demanded.

"The answer to your question is fascinating. Unfortunately, you shall be too dead to hear it." Zola said. A set of blast door began to close over the eleverator shaft but Steve threw his shield too late to wedge them open.

"Steve.. we have a bogey. Short range ballistic. Thirty seconds... tops." Natasha said, reading the warning that had made her phone chirp.

"Who fired it?" he asked, snatching his shield out of the air.

"SHIELD." she whispered, looking afraid for the first time that he could remember.

"I'm afraid I have been stalling Captain." Zola said as Natasha grabbed the flash drive and Steve looked around for any kind of protection.

Glancing over his shoulder at Natasha, he wrenched a ventilation grate loose from the floor.

"Admit it... it's better this way. We are, both of us, out of time." Zola finished as they dove into the space under the ventilation grate.

 _ **Author: yes Clint likes War Games & yes Rain likes horror/gory movies & shows... because reasons.**_


	25. Chapter 29

_**Author: hello freaky darlings! Mommy's alive! So life has been crazy... as always. Been working a lot, playing Pokemon Sun, playing WoW and of course... Thanksgiving. But good news: both The Arrival and Fantastic Beasts are amazing. And I have a new nephew who was born just before Thanksgiving! Bonding between all my favorite people... and my love of Jurassic Park that won't go away.**_

 **April 3rd, 2014**

 **Washington DC**

"Where exactly are we going?" Natasha whispered.

"To a friend's." Steve said, helping her over the fence.

She was shaken.. worse than Steve had ever seen any SHIELD agent since he had woken up.

Not even Clint had been this shaken after being used as Loki's toy... at least not that he had let on.

 **Flashback**

"Finally." Steve muttered as the door to the living room opened up.

He had spent the past twenty minutes trying to find his way to the living room from his room and hadn't been willing to swallow his pride enough to ask Jarvis for directions.

The lights were dim but the tv was on so he moved quietly into the kitchen area to grab a beer.

"Can't sleep Cap?"

"Shit." he yelped, wishing he hadn't left his shield in his room.

Clint was looking at him from over the top of the couch and snickering. "I recognized your footsteps." the archer said by way of explanation.

Steve rolled his eyes and opened the fridge. "You SHIELD agents are way too good at sneaking around." he grumbled.

"It's what we do." Clint smirked as he got up.

"Beer?" Steve offered.

"Nope... should probably stop drinking for the night. Had too much already." Clint sighed.

His eyes were a little glazed and his movements weren't as smooth as Steve was used to from SHIELD agents. The archer had definitely been drinking but there was something bothering him... badly.

Steve settled on a bar stool and Clint leaned against the back of the couch, staring at the empty tumbler in his hand.

"He fucked me over good... Loki. Took all my memories... my instincts... everything... tossed it all into a blender. And then he shoved something else into my head... something really fucked up." Clint muttered.

"Like what?" Steve asked.

The archer was a little drunk and needed to rant... so Steve had not problem encouraging him.

"It was like... Did you see Jurassic Park?" Clint asked, balancing his tumbler on the back of the couch.

Steve paused, surprised by the sudden question before he nodded slowly. Rain had made him sit through the first one and he had been amazing by it... and terrified.

"Remember the Velicoraptors? What smart and deadly and clever girls they were?" Clint asked.

"Yeah." Steve muttered.

Clint ran a hand through his hair and whispered, "It was like Loki took all everything that made them so damn smart, deadly and clever... then he put that into my head. But without any of my inhibitions."

"That wasn't you. All those people that died... that was Loki." Steve told him quietly.

Clint slipped down the back of the couch to sit on the floor, staring at the ceiling.

Quietly Steve dropped down beside him and slipped an arm around the archer's shoulders.

"My bullets... my arrows." Clint finally muttered.

"It was all Loki. He messed with your head... but that wasn't you." Steve assured him.

 **End Flashback**

"Can we trust him?" Natasha asked, dragging him out of his head.

He nodded and guided her gently up the steps before knocking on the sliding glass door.

As they watched, the blinds folded up and Sam opened the door. "Hey man." he whispered.

"I'm sorry about this. We need a place to lay low." Steve told him.

"Everyone we know is trying to kill us." Natasha added, eyeing Sam.

Sam glanced them both over and noted how rough they looked and how much Natasha was shaking.

"Not everyone." he whispered, stepping aside to let them inside. Once they were in, he shot a glance around outside to make sure nobody was watching. Thankfully he had never had a problem with nosey neighbors.

Natasha glanced around the house and found it neat. The house was simple and open with a large living room that had a huge tv, dvd player and stereo system plus dozens of DVDs and CDs.

"OJ?" Sam asked, pulling three glasses down.

"Please." she whispered as Steve peeked out the front window.

"Pretty sure I've got something that you can change into Cap. Maybe something for you Widow." Sam told them, bringing the glasses into the living room.

Steve nodded and Natasha added, "It's Natasha."

"So what happened?" Sam asked after a moment.

"SHIELD's compromised. HYDRA has been operating secretly inside it for decades." Steve told him.

Sam nodded slowly but decided not to press for more details. He knew people would shut down if they were forced to talk... he saw it a lot at the VA.

"C'mon." he called quietly, steering them towards his guest room where they could clean up and change clothes once he found them something to change into to.

 **-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-**

Natasha watched Steve as she towel dried her hair, having stuck her head under the tub faucet just long enough to get the dirt and grit out.

"You okay?" the soldier asked.

"Yeah." she lied softly.

Neither of them had showered... even though they probably had time to and had just stripped off their jackets and over shirts.

She could tell Steve didn't believe her. It was written in his body language and his eyes.

Rain had tried to teach him to not be so readable... obviously it hadn't stuck.

"What's going on?" he asked gently as he sat by her.

She watched him and the words tumbled out before she could stop them. "When I first joined SHIELD, I thought I was going straight. But I guess... I just traded the KGB for HYDRA." she whispered.

Steve stared at her, listening but not judging. He knew that life in SHIELD... HYDRA... whichever... was hard on it's agents. It made them guarded and cautious. He counted himself as lucky that Rain trusted him enough to open up to him a little bit.

"I thought I knew whose lies I was telling. But I guess I can't tell the difference anymore." she admitted.

This was a big confession for her, Steve could tell as he wondered if Fury's death had knocked something loose in her. "There's a chance you might be in the wrong business." he joked.

She stared at him before smiling... just a little. "I owe you." she whispered.

"It's okay." he assured her. He hated the way Clint, Natasha and Rain always talked about the fact that they all owed each other debts.

"If it was the other way around, and it was down to me to save your life... now be honest with me... would you trust me to do it?" she asked, feeling frightened suddenly.

Steve could tell what she needed as soon as she asked. Her entire life had to seem like a series of lies and betrayals right now. She didn't need someone she could trust.. she had that in Rain and Clint. She needed to know that someone trusted her.

"I would now. And I'm always honest." he told her, meaning every word of it.

She perked up pretty fast hearing that and started to seem like her usual self. "You're pretty chipper for someone who just found out they died for nothing." she chuckled.

He smirked, leaning back and said, "Well... I guess I just like to know who I'm fighting."

Now that he knew that enemy for HYDRA and not someone he trusted, he felt better.

"I made breakfast... if you guys eat that kind of thing. And I've got some spare clothes. If you're cool with wearing some of my sweats for a bit. Unfortunately my last girlfriend didn't leave anything laying around." Sam said, looking at Natasha.

"That's fine." she chuckled.

"Thanks." Steve said, getting up to follow Sam out so Natasha could change into the pants Sam had in hand.

 _ **Author: seriously... why are these three so cute together? I can't wait for Rain and Sam to meet! And speaking of Rain... we will be getting back to her and Clint soon.**_


	26. Chapter 30

_**Author: OMG, I've been gone for a while. And so has my buddy Overlordred... who I hope comes back home soon! Anyways... picks up right where the last chapter left off and as always, follows the movie as much as possible... with some liberties taken of course. See end for more author notes and if I don't post again before the holidays: Merry Xmas, Blessed Yule and Happy New Year. Enjoy Rogue One if you're planning to see it!**_

Sam shoved the dishwasher shut with his foot, surprised at the amount of food Steve and Natasha had put away.

He figured Steve had a super fast metabolism because of the super soldier serum but... he had no idea about Natasha.

"Is every SHIELD agent I meet gonna eat me out of house and home?" he asked.

Natasha smirked and glanced at Steve who shrugged before admitting, "More than likely. But we'll pay for the dent in your groceries."

"Don't worry about it." Sam told him.

"So.. the question is.. who at SHIELD could launch a domestic missile strike?" Natasha asked.

The answer to that question would tell them who was in charge of the HYDRA spies that had infiltrated the Triskelion.

"Pierce." Steve muttered after thinking for a moment.

"Who happens to be sitting on top of the most secure building in the world." she pointed out, standing close by.

Steve stared at a point on the wall past Sam and said, "He's not working alone. Zola's algorithm was on the Lemurian Star."

Natasha hesitated for a moment before whispered, "So was Jasper Sitwell."

Steve looked up at her, confused for a moment until he figured it out: Sitwell had been in on it from the very beginning. Steve had suspected it when he had heard Sitwell issuing orders through the Quinjet's speakers... but he had hoped that Sitwell was only following someone else's orders.

Now it seemed that he had been a part of the corruption inside SHIELD for a long time.

Sam watched Steve and Natasha share a long look before he stepped out of the room.

They were going to need help but they were also two of the most recognizable people in DC.

"So... the real question is, how do the two most wanted people in Washington kidnap a SHIELD officer in broad daylight?" Steve asked.

Sam dropped a folder between Steve and Natasha before telling them, "The answer is... you don't."

Printed on the cover of the folder in large black lettering was: EXO-7 FALCON.

"What's this?" Steve asked.

"Call it a resume." Sam told him.

Natasha pulled the cover photo out and stared at it. Sam stood there with a friend, both in nonstandard combat uniforms... in a desert she recognized. "Is this Bakhmala? The Khalid Khandil mission... that was you?" she asked.

Sam nodded slowly... avoiding her gaze.

"You didn't say he was a pararescue." she added, looking at Steve.

Steve took the picture and whispered, "This Riley?"

"Yeah." Sam admitted softly.

Steve immediately felt for the other man... knowing all too well the pain of losing a brother in arms.

"I heard they couldn't bring in the choppers because of the RPGs." Natasha said, familiar with the operation. Then she glanced up at Sam and asked, "What did you use? A stealth chute?"

"No, these." Sam said, handing Steve another folder and stepping back to wait for him to look through the images inside.

Steve stared at the images and muttered, "I thought you said you were a pilot."

"I never said pilot." Sam chuckled.

Steve shook his head and said, "I can't ask you to do this Sam. You got out for a good reason."

Sam smirked and told him, "Dude... Captain America needs my help. There's no better reason to get back in."

Steve couldn't argue that point because he knew that if they had to take on both HYDRA and SHIELD, they would need all the help they could get. "Where can we get our hands on one of these things?" he asked.

"The last one is at Fort Meade. Behind three guarded gates. And a twelve inch steel wall." Sam told him.

Steve looked at Natasha who shrugged and shook her head. "Shouldn't be a problem." he told Sam.

Natasha pulled the file with the pictures from Bakhmala close and flipped it open, thumbing through the pages. She had never read any of the files for the operation... just heard stories.

"How do you know about this?" Steve asked Natasha, motioning to the files on the table.

"Clint served as a sniper in the US Army from late 2002 to early 2005. He got out, honorable discharge, a few months before Rain joined SHIELD and once she did, he took her under his wing. He was in Bakhmala." she told him.

"What unit?" Sam asked.

"He was on loan from SHIELD until May 2004 when he was assigned to work alongside the 34th Infantry. All SHIELD agents are also counted as military." she told him.

"You said his name is Clint?" Sam muttered, stepping back out of the room.

"Barton. Codename Hawkeye. He was the archer in New York." she called.

Sam returned with a shoebox that he sat down on the counter to dig through. "That him?" he asked, passing a polaroid over to her.

The picture was small but it was definitely Clint, wearing military fatigues with a dog tag between his teeth and aiming down the barrel of a handgun. Flipping it over she saw that it was labeled, "34th's most badass sniper Clint. Target practice."

"That's him." she whispered, passing the photo to Steve.

Steve looked at the picture and smirked. The man he knew was older and more worn than the one in the picture but there was a spark in Clint's eyes in the polaroid that Steve recognized from his time spent with the archer. "Mind if I use your phone?" he asked, passing the polaroid back to Sam.

"Sure." Sam whispered, tossing him the wireless phone.

"Hold on." Natasha told him, pulling a thumb drive from her small pile of belonging on the living room table.

"What's that?" Sam asked as she plugged it into his laptop that he had been allowing her to use.

"It will make sure the call he's going to make can't be traced back to you." Natasha told him. After a moment, the laptop beeped and she nodded to Steve.

The program was running as it should.

He took the phone into the guest room and dialed Rain's cell phone. It went straight to her voicemail as it had dozens of times before but like always, he waited to leave a voicemail.

"Hi... it's me... again. Things are extremely crazy here but I can't really give you any details except that you can't trust anyone. SHIELD isn't what you think it is... what you believe in. I hope that where ever you are... you're safe. And if you talk to Clint, ask him about Sam Wilson. Seems like they meet while they were both in Afghanistan." he said before the voicemail reached it's time limit and the call ended.

"Damn it... how hard is it to say three little words?" he groaned.

Sam knocked quietly on the doorframe and asked, "Your girlfriend okay?"

"I don't know. Her phone keeps going straight to voicemail." Steve admitted.

Sam squeezed his shoulder and said, "She'll get them and she'll come home to you. She's a tough woman."

 _ **Author: had to do a little research for this one. No idea when Sam served or when he got out so I took some liberties with the timeline a little bit. But the 34**_ _ **th**_ _ **Infantry Division commenced combat operations throughout Afghanistan in May 2004 so that part is true. Part of the idea of Clint having served in Afghanistan is taken from Jeremy Renner's performance in Hurt Locker. I just carried that into the MCU. And the fact that Clint and Sam knew each other, however briefly, is taken from Hurt Locker as well because Jeremy and Anthony's characters were sorta friends. Next chapter: we finally catch up to everyone's other two favorite agents.**_


	27. Chapter 31

**_Author: Been sitting on this one for a while but just needed to to do some modifications.  
More Anne Rice references than you can count. But consider them XMas gifts. _**

**April 3rd, 2014**

 **Outside Altamura, Italy**

Clint glanced over at Rain before gently shaking her awake.

"Hmmm?" she murmured.

"We're here. And you slept most of the trip." he told her.

"You should have woken me up. I can't believe you drove the last ten hours of this trip." she muttered.

"It was only about seven and a half hours. I stopped us for a little while so I could sleep for a bit." he admitted.

Rain shook her head & stepped out of the car. She was not sure where her father had gotten the car & when he had warned her not to ask... she had obeyed him.

"Where are we?" she asked.

"Paradise Vineyard, Winery & Orchards. It's run by the current matron of this branch of the family: Antonia Merola." he told her.

"This branch of the family? You make it sound like we're The Great Family." Rain laughed before looking over at him with a raised eyebrow & added, "Are we?"

Clint laughed, tossed an arm around her shoulders & said, "You & your obsession with those books."

"Sue me old man." she giggled, dancing away from him to look around. The home Clint had pulled up was huge & half covered in ivy, which hid the deep brown stone the home... mansion was made of.

"Antonia & her husband live there with about half a dozen of their children, their significant others & any children that they have. Everyone else who live across the property are more of Antonia's kids, their kids & grandkids. Plus numerous cousins, friends of the family & some other people who work here." Clint called as he opened the trunk to pull out their bags.

Rain spun in a quick circle, staring at the property around them. The house was to the east, the driveway to the north & trees as far as she could see in the other two directions.

"They must have thousands of acres." she whispered in awe.

"Something like that. Come on... let's go see Antonia." Clint told her.

She tossed her bag over her shoulder & followed him to the house. "How is Antonia related to us?" she asked.

"She's one of Laura's aunt's cousins... a couple of times removed. I think." he admitted.

"You don't know?" she asked.

"I know she's related to Laura... I'm just a little fuzzy on how exactly." Clint said as he opened the front door.

There was more chatter than Rain could make sense of & most of it in Italian though she did hear a little bit of English.

A tiny girl, no more than three, waundered out of the kitchen & pulled at the bottom of Clint's shirt. "Ciao." she chirped.

"Ciao tesoro, ci puo prendere per Antonia?" Clint asked, crouching down to her level.

The little girl giggled at his slightly rough Italian & led them further into the house, calling out: "Nonna!"

Rain looked around the house as they followed the little girl. The house was warm & appeared to have been lived in for a very long time... much like her beloved home near the base of the Catskills.

"Nonna!" the little girl called again.

This time a woman stepped out of one of the side rooms & looked them over before laughing softly. "Clint Barton... it's been a long time since I last saw you. Where is my Laura?" she asked in English.

Clint hugged her tightly & said, "Still at home in the states. But this is our daughter Rain. Rain, this is Antonia Merola, our Italian Marton."

Antonia was a short & plump woman with long brown hair that was streaked heavily with silver & warm gold eyes. Rain couldn't even try to guess her age because she didn't look any older than Clint.

"I remember Laura calling me & telling me all about you darling. It's so good to finally meet you in person." Antonia smiled, hugging Rain tightly before kissing both of her cheeks.

Rain squeezed her gently & remembered the bottles of wine sent at christmas... one of which Natasha had finally convinced her to try. It had been smelt strongly of something floral but had a taste similar to blood oranges. The strong smell of alcohol left her feeling light headed so she hadn't taken more than a sip. Laura, Clint & Natasha had enjoyed it though.

Of course wine had not been the only thing sent at Christmas.

Cards, framed photos, small paintings, beautiful wooden figurines & countless other presents... and every package with postmarks from Italy.

"You send the wooden figures for the little ones & wine for mom & dad every Christmas." she laughed.

Antonia gave Clint a playful glare & said, "Is that all you know about me? I'm disappointed in your father."

Clint shook his head & muttered, "All you women... always ganging up on me."

"It's because we love you dad." Rain said as a young woman about her age came into the hall & hugged him.

"One of my grandaughters." Antonia assured Rain then switching to Italian she added, "Lena, this is Rain. Clint & Laura's oldest daughter."

Lena was beautiful & slender with her grandmother's dark hair & hazel eyes. "Do you speak Italian or just English?" she asked in her native language.

"Very little Italian. Mostly English." Rain admitted in rough Italian.

Lena laughed gently & said, "It's alright. Gran-Momma made sure that some of us speak English. We have a lot of family in other countries."

"This place is gorgeous." Rain whispered, looking around.

"It always has been. Laura & I spent our honeymoon out here. Really should bring the rest of the family out here sometime." Clint told her.

Antonia steered them towards the kitchen & Rain paused as she noticed that the kitchen was full of people: men, women & children of all ages talking, laughing & eating.

"What's wrong?" Antonia asked as Rain froze.

"She doesn't do well in crowded places full of strangers. If it's for a mission, she's fine but otherwise..." Clint whispered, stroking Rain's back gently.

Antonia gave them a soft smile & Lena whispered, "I can make you a plate if you'd like."

"Yes please. And I'm sorry." Rain said softly, leaning against Clint for comfort.

"Don't be sorry dear... it's not your fault. Is there anything you're allergic to so that we know not to feed it to you?" Antonia told her gently.

"Seafood & coconut." Clint whispered as he stroked Rain's arm.

Lena stepped into the kitchen & Antonia said, "We'll make sure to avoid all of that then. Clint why don't you take her out onto the side porch. Lena & I will bring plates out to you."

Clint nodded & gently guided Rain outside. "I'm sorry kiddo. I didn't think it would be so crowded. Normally the family doesn't eat all at once... usually there's too much work to do around the property." he whispered as they settled down.

Rain sighed & asked, "Wasn't seeing the shrink supposed to help?"

"There's only so much that can do sweetheart... the rest is up to you." Clint told her gently.

Lena & Antonia stepped outside a moment later with their plates & two glasses of water. "You need anything else, send you just send your father inside." Antonia said, kissing Rain's cheek.

"Thank you." she whispered.

Clint stared out at the property as they ate. It constantly amazed him that the family had any time for upkeep on the property & homes, since the work involved with the winery, orchards & vineyards seemed to keep them almost constantly busy.

"Lena said that we have family in other countries. Just how big is the family?" Rain asked after a little while.

Clint smirked & said, "Remember how I said that Anne Rice wasn't that far off with the Talamasca? Well... she wasn't that far off with a few other things."

"Vampires?" Rain asked, eyes wide & hopeful.

Clint laughed at her reaction & asked, "Remember the Great Family?"

Rain nodded & asked, "Do we have a Maharet?"

"No we don't have a Maharet. But Antonia's family... Laura's family... is a little bit like that. The various branches of the family can all trace themselves to each other... to some extent. There are heads of each family branch in various countries that keep track of their particular branch & while they all keep track of each other, there is not one particular person who keeps track of everyone." Clint explained.

"How far back does it all go?" she asked.

"I have no idea." he admitted.

"Telling her about the family?"

They both looked up to see Antonia just outside the door leading into the house.

"A little bit. She's obsessed with those books by Anne Rice so she thinks we're like the Great Family." he admitted, smirking.

"Well she's not wrong... not by much at least." Antonia laughed.

Rain's eyes widened & she asked, "Do you have a family tree Antonia?"

"Here in the main house yes. Once everyone starts going back to work, we can go in & have a look at it. How does that sound?" Antonia laughed gently.

"Yes please." Rain whispered.


	28. Chapter 32

_**Author: hope everyone had a good XMAS and New Years. I've been working on this one for a while but never quite got around to finishing it because of work and being sick. All the damn cedar in the air... I swear it's trying to kill me. On a side note, Underworld Blood Wars is pretty good. And the room the family tree is in is somewhat based off the drawing room of 12 Grimmauld Place, which also holds the Black Family Tapestry.**_

Clint sighed and tossed the blankets aside before sitting up.

It was late and as tired as he was, he couldn't sleep.

Antonia, Lena and the rest of the family had been extremely welcoming of their two American relatives but only Antonia knew why they were there.

A little earlier in the day, Rain had gotten her personal phone charged and found no less than half a dozen voice mails from Steve.

Most of them had been him trying to check on her but he had also told them that HYDRA had been existing withing SHIELD for decades and Fury... was dead.

First they had lost Phil... now Nick.

"Damn it." he muttered, staring at the ceiling.

Nick had always been more than just Clint's superior over the years... he had been a strange mix of a father figure, older brother and friend to him... and to Laura as well.

To Rain and Natasha: Nick had been a surrogate father and friend.

At one point Laura had begun calling Nick Cooper and Lila's grandfather... of course the joke had stuck.

"Might as well go check on Rain." he whispered, tugging a shirt on and then a hoodie over it.

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

Quietly Clint pushed the wooden double doors to the archive room open and stepped inside.

The room was huge with one entire wall covered by bookcases which held records about Antonia's branch of their massive family.

As impressive as the records were, the family tree that covered the majority of the other three walls was awe inspiring.

The black paint was faded but still read able... it would need to be touched up... of course Rain had already volunteered to do it.

Over two hundred years ago a woman named Antoinette Hendricks married a man named William Giovanni.

William's mother had wanted to start documenting their family tree but her husband had refused to allow it so after she had passed away, Antoinette had carried out her mother-in-law's wish and written down the original family tree.

Most of the original documents had been lost to time but sometime in the 1920's, someone had painted the family tree on the walls of the archive room.

When Antonia had shown them the room earlier, Rain had been entranced by the history held within it's walls.

Her biological parents had raised her without any knowledge of her either of their families and she had never seemed very curious about Clint or Laura's families.

Laura's mother had left her to be raised by her father when she had been very young. As she had grown up, her father had become extremely abusive towards her.

Clint's own father had been very abusive when he had been young and Clint still wore several scars from him. His mother had tried to protect both him and his older brother but his father had turned his abuse towards her as well... until she had ended up following him down to the bottom of the bottle.

As it had turned out, both of their mothers had come from large families but because of the men they had married... they had become estranged from their relatives.

 **Flashback**

"How well do you know this Antonia?" Clint asked Laura as they pulled to a stop in front of a huge ivy covered house.

"Pretty well. It's just been a long time since I've seen her. I think the last time I was still six or so... about the time my mother left." Laura reassured him.

Clint touched the gun strapped to his thigh and locked the car SHIELD had loaned them.

Fury had recruited him only a few years ago but he was still extremely cautious and distrusting of strangers.

"It's okay." she whispered, wrapping an arm around his waist.

She was nineteen and beautiful in a very down to earth way with thick dark hair and doe eyes. He was twenty-three with spiky blonde hair and still looked very young.

But they both had scars from their parent's abuse that they hid when they could... which was part of the reason they were together.

Laura pushed the front door and softly called, "Hello? Is anyone awake?"

There was a soft shuffling sound down the hall and a door opened before a figure stuck their head out. "Ciao?" a voice called.

"Ciao. Sorry for waking you." Laura called back.

"Is okay. My english is not good." the man told her.

Clint raised an eyebrow at his broken english and whispered, "Do you speak Italian Laur?"

"I know a few basic phrases." she admitted.

"Who you looking for?" the man asked.

"Antonia. My name is Laura. I'm a distant cousin from America." she told him.

The man nodded and disappeared further into the house as Clint looked around. Despite it's age, the house was well maintained and judging by the countless pictures on the walls... home to a very large family.

He remembered seeing family photos very similar to these in albums that his mother had shown him when he was a very little boy... a life time ago.

"Laura? Darling is that you?"

"Antonia... come meet my husband." Laura smiled.

"Husband? You've been busy." a short and plump woman laughed, hugging Laura tightly then reaching for him.

Clint took a step back out of her reach and Laura said, "He's not very good with people Antonia... you'll have to forgive him. He's been through a lot."

Antonia nodded and asked, "Would you like to see how large of a family you married into Clint?"

"Yeah sure." he shrugged.

It was a strange introduction but he wasn't going to question it too much.

Laura squeezed his hand tightly as Antonia led them through the halls and to a set of wooden double doors. "This is our archive room. It holds the family history... for this branch of our family at least." Antonia told them.

"How big is your family?" Clint asked.

"Extremely large. There are have many branches and each of them have their own family tree and recorded history. Our history was started over two hundred years ago. The family tree, at least the one you're about to see, wasn't started until around the 1920's." Antonia told him.

He nodded and as they walked into the room, did a full circle to take in everything he was seeing. Floor to ceiling bookcases on one wall but the other three were covered with names and dates... the family tree.

"Holy shit." he whispered, sitting down on the floor.

 **End Flashback**

Clint brushed Rain's hair out of her face and whispered, "Hell of a sight isn't it kiddo?"

She mumbled something in her sleep and rolled over, curling into a ball in the sleeping bag that one of Antonia's grandchildren had found for her to sleep in.

He chuckled before going over to pull a book off one of the shelves and settling down in one of the over sized armchairs on the other side of the room.


	29. Chapter 34

_**Author: Guess who's back! For the time being at least. RWBY has  
given me so many feels lately that I'm practically drowning in them.  
Plus I'm currently battle bronchitus and getting married in a month and a  
half... so yeah... crazy life. Happy V-Day. Have some badass-ness.**_

 **April 3** **rd** **, 2014**

 **Washington DC**

"Bald dude? Glasses? Talking with Senator Stern?" Sam whispered.

"That's him. The program is running just fine." Natasha confirmed in his ear.

Sam nodded and pulled out his new phone, speed dialing the only number in it.

As he watched the two men with Jasper Sitwell walked away and Sitwell put his phone to his ear.

"Yes sir?"

"Agent Sitwell, how was lunch? I hear the crab cakes here are delicious." Sam said.

Sitwell tensed because while his caller ID had read Alexander Pierce, the voice on the other end was not his superior officer.

"Who is this?" he asked.

"The good looking guy in the sunglasses, your 10 o'clock." Sam said and watched Sitwell turn right.

"Your other 10 o'clock." Sam prompted and watched Sitwell turn back to his left.

Sitwell spotted him right away: a solid-looking African American man in jeans and a leather jacket.

"There you go." Sam smirked, lifting his tea in a mock toast from the coffeehouse patio across the street.

"What do you want?" Sitwell asked.

Sam smirked a bit and said, "You're gonna go around the corner to your right. There's a gray car two spaces down. You and I are gonna take a ride."

Sitwell smirked. He had been threatened more times than he could count and had no intentions of doing what this stranger wanted him to do. "And why would I do that?" he asked.

"Natasha." Sam heard Steve whisper through the com.

"Because that tie looks really expensive. And I'd hate to mess it up." Sam warned.

Sitwell looked down and saw a bright red dot of a laser sight on his tie, about six inches below the knot... right above his heart.

Sitwell looked around, trying desperately to find the sniper.

"Car. Now." Sam told him.

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

Steve shoved Sitwell across the rooftop and said, "Tell me about Zola's algorithm."

Natasha's footsteps were right behind him, a reminder that she was loyal to him... not HYDRA.

"Never heard of it." Sitwell lied.

"What were you doing on the Lemurian Star?" Steve demanded.

"I was throwing up. I get seasick."

Sitwell stumbled as he bumped into the knee-high parapet running around the roof.

Steve caught him but didn't let him get away from the edge, boxing him in with his bulkier frame. Natasha stepped up on his left and glanced around, seemingly unconcerned with Sitwell.

Sitwell smirked, knowing that Captain America wasn't a murderer and asked, "Is this little display meant to insinuate that you're gonna throw me off the roof? Because it's not really your style Rogers."

Steve smirked as he straightened Sitwell's jacket and smoothed it out like they were old friends, remembering something Rain had once told him.

 **flashback**

"You always want to mislead your enemies. Especially if they have a college degree in espionage." Rain said, taking a cup of coffee from him.

"What if some of your friends have that same degree?" Steve asked as he opened a DVD case.

"Well... then I'd say you have some pretty interesting friends." she smirked.

 **End Flashback**

Steve nodded and admitted, "You're right. It's not. It's hers."

With that he stepped away from Sitwell, who had no time to react as Natasha kicked him square in the chest... right off the edge of the thirty story building.

As his screams faded into the distance, Natasha looked up at him and said, "Oh, wait. What about that girl from Accounting, Laura..."

" _No wait... that can't be right."_ she thought.

"Lillian. Lip piercing right?" Steve corrected.

Natasha nodded and said, "Yeah she's cute."

"Yeah I'm not ready for that." Steve shrugged.

"You don't like piercings but you don't mind tattoos?" Natasha asked.

Steve smirked, knowing that she was talking about Rain's tattoos. He had seen the three dates on her left wrist and the two on her right but had never asked about them. He knew the hawk tattooed on her upper right shoulder blade was in honor of Clint, who had taken her under his wing and trained her when she joined SHIELD. And he knew the SHIELD logo at the nape of her neck spoke for itself.

"If they mean something, I'm okay with them." he admitted.

A few seconds later, Sitwell came flying up over the edge of the roof, still screaming and in the firm grip of Sam Wilson.

Sam wore no uniform, just regular street clothes and a set of polarized googles against the glare and the wind. From his shoulders sprouted twenty foot wings jointed into a jetpack barely larger than a high schooler's backpack.

Natasha smiled and whispered, "The EXO-7 Falcon tech is amazing. And so is the Falcon."

Steve nodded his agreement as Sam dropped Sitwell on the roof and landed. The wings folded into the jetpack, which powered down. "I think Clint is going to want one for himself." Steve whispered.

Natasha smirked as they walked up to Sitwell, who was looking none too happy.

"Zola's algorithm is a program for choosing Insight's targets." Sitwell panted.

"What targets?" Steve asked.

Natasha raised an eyebrow as Sitwell pointed at Steve. "You! A TV anchor in Cairo. The undersecretary of defense. A high school valedictorian in Iowa City. Bruce Banner... Stephen Strange... anyone who's a threat to HYDRA. Now, or in the future." he snapped.

Steve almost scoffed, knowing that more than likely anyone who went after Banner was going to get a lot more than they bargained for. "In the future? How could it know?" he asked.

Sitwell chuckled and got up, standing to face Steve. Behind him, Sam took a few steps forward... not trusting the HYDRA agent.

"How could it not? The twenty-first century is a digital book. Zola taught HYDRA how to read it. Your bank records, medical history, voting patterns, e-mails, phone calls, your damn SAT scores! Zola's algorithm evaluates people's past to predict their future." he snarled.

Natasha shot a glance at Steve who whispered, "What then?"

A look of fear passed over Sitwell's face and he whispered, "Oh, my God. Pierce is gonna kill me."

"What then?!" Steve demanded, taking a step forward.

Sam grabbed the back of Sitwell's jacket, reminding him that it would be a bad idea to run.

"Then the Insight Helicarriers scratch people off the list... a few million at a time." Sitwell said.

" _Shit."_ Steve thought.


	30. Chapter 37

_**Author: Hey everyone! So I'm sure everyone kept up with my previous Author's Note but for those who didn't: I'm now married! Unfortunately I go back to work tommarow aka Tuesday. :( :P I really do love the interaction between Steve, Sam & Natasha. And I realized that under any other set of circumstances, Sam would probably be jealous of Steve having Natasha crawl into his lap like she does. I know I am. Anyways: welcome back to my wacky world!**_

"Hydra doesn't like leaks." Sitwell said from the backseat of the SHIELD car that Natasha had stolen.

He was worried about what the trio with him would do if they decided that they didn't need him anymore.

"Then why don't you try sticking a cork in it?" Sam said from the driver's seat.

Sitwell's chatter was distracting... but that might have also been the point of it.

"Insight's launching in sixteen hours. We're cutting it a little bit close here." Natasha said, looking over Steve's shoulder from the back seat at him and Sam.

She wasn't nervous... just concerned... or at least that's what she told herself.

"I know." Steve reassured her, "We'll use him to bypass the DNA scans and access the Helicarriers directly."

"What? Are you crazy?! That is a terrible, terrible idea." Sitwell protested.

Steve and Natasha both looked up at the sound of a large thud on the top of the car as the window next to Sitwell shattered.

Sam hissed as an arm reached into the window, pulled Sitwell from the car and flung him away.

Natasha watched as the arm retreated out of sight, gun in hand and heard the sound of footsteps on the top of the car. "Shit." she cursed in Russian before diving over the gap between Steve and Sam to land in Steve's lap, pulling him lower in the seat.

"The hell?" Sam thought before bullets started to punch holes in the roof.

Steve winced as a bullet flew past his head, holding Natasha tightly as the brakes locked up and squealed.

The black clad figure who had been atop the car tumbled out into the road, dragging his metal hand along to road to slow himself and get his balance.

"Steve." Natasha whispered.

"Who is this guy?" Sam asked as the figure in the road got to his feet.

"The Winter Soldier." Steve hissed.

They all yelped as Humvee collided with the back end of the car, pushing it towards the Winter Soldier... who jumped onto the roof.

Natasha felt on the floor for her gun, which had fallen during the collision, as the Winter Soldier punched through the windshield and tore the steering wheel off it's column.

"Shit!" Sam shouted as Natasha fired through the roof at the Winter Soldier, who jumped back onto the Humvee.

Steve shoved his shield against the passenger door, breaking off it's hinges as the car swerved out of the control. "Hang on!" he shouted, pulling Natasha into his lap and Sam almost on top of her.

As the car flipped onto it's side in midair, they dove out onto the loose door... riding it like a sparking, squealing sled down the highway.

"Sam!" Natasha shouted when the former soldier slipped off and rolled away from them.

"I'm fine!" he shouted once he came to a stop. He was dizzy and bruised but otherwise unharmed.

Ahead of them, the car was still rolling and pieces of it were breaking off to roll across the pavement.

"You okay?" Steve whispered as the door came to a halt.

"Yeah." Natasha admitted.

They both got up, abandoning their makeshift sled as a HYDRA commando handed the Winter Soldier a grenade launcher.

"Go!" Steve shouted, shoving Natasha away as the Winter Soldier fired at him.

Natasha didn't need any more prompting to run as the grenade hit Steve's shield and sent him flying off the overpass then through a bus window.

Sam grabbed Natasha and they dodged behind a crashed car.

"Steve?" he asked.

She shook her head but pointed to the other side of the overpass as HYDRA commandos opened fire.

Sam ran further back, trying to avoid getting shot.

He had been through this before... back in Afghanistan... but never without a weapon.

Natasha exchanged gunfire with the commandos before the Winter Soldier fired a grenade at her.

" _I'm not sticking around to become barbecue."_ she thought, diving off the overpass.

She felt the heat of the fire on her back as she fired a grappling hooking into the underside of the bridge to swing herself upright onto the street below.

"Now I know how Clint felt in New York." she muttered, as she hit the ground running.

On the ground in front of her, there was shadow cast from overhead... the Winter Soldier's shadow.

"Think about how you're gonna play this. You're only gonna have one shot." a voice in her head, which sounded a lot like Clint, whispered.

"You're half way across the world and still guiding me." she thought.

"One shot Nat. Make it count." Clint's voice told her.

"That is the plan." she hissed, stepping out from under the bridge and firing up at the Winter Soldier. As she took cover behind an over turned bus, she saw him fall back.

Up on the bridge, the Winter Soldier shook his head.

One the lenses of his goggles was cracked from the bullet... which would have been a kill shot had he not been wearing them.

The woman was not his mission so if she died... it would be collateral damage.

Her near kill shot had made him furious and he was vaguely aware of tossing his goggles away, grabbing a machine gun and firing upon the woman with it.

She was smart... knowing enough to remain behind cover but also returning fire until her handguns were empty... only then did she run again.

"I have _**her**_. Find _**him**_." he snarled in Russian at one of the commandos beside him.

After jumping off the bridge and landing on an abandoned car, he started walking after the woman. She couldn't run forever... not without help and she couldn't fight him... not without more ammunition.


	31. Chapter 39

_**Author: I'm back! So I am now fully moved into a house, which has both a game room & a library. Guess where I spend all my time ;) There's a library right by the entrance to my neighborhood & a badass Mexican store maybe a mile away. Life is good. Anyways: enjoy & R&R.**_

Sam glanced over his shoulder as he slipped a knife off the body of an unconscious HYDRA commando.

He was no SHIELD agent but the military had left his better trained than these commandos... who were too focused on their mission to noticed one of their men was missing.

The last commando on the bridge was watching the street below, providing cover fire for his comrades... not paying attention to his surroundings as Sam snuck up on him.

The commando cursed when Sam kicked the back of his knee, not hard enough to break it... just hard enough to make it hard to move... harder for the other man to go on the offensive.

Sam punched him in the face as the other man turned from the waist up, getting a grip on the commando's gun as he did.

In one quick move, he cut the rappel line and tossed the commando off the over pass... ignoring the sound of bones breaking as he hit the asphalt below.

 **0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0**

Steve jumped onto the car, surprising the commando with the gatling gun, before vaulting over him and slammed him back first onto the car hood.

He could still hear gunfire off to his side and above him... which seemed to be aimed at each other.

The gatling gun landed hard a few feet away, cracking the cement as Steve crouched behind the car.

Sam glanced down at Steve, who was edging his way around the side of the car and shouted, "Go! I got this!"

One HYDRA commando with a gun... nothing he couldn't handle.

 **-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-**

Natasha cringed at the explosion behind her and shrank further into her hiding spot.

The Winter Soldier was dangerous but not silent... his footsteps were loud and heavy... there was no attempt to hide his presence.

Even if he did try, she could barely hear a strange metallic sound... as if the metal plates of his arm were shifting against each other.

She could hear people running and screaming, obeying their fight or flight instinct... an instinct the Red Room had trained out of her.

Laying down on her stomach, she saw the Winter Soldier's boots stop on the other side of the car she was hidden behind.

His shadow darkened on the ground as he crouched and she heard something metallic rolling away from them both... towards the trap she had set with a phone playing back an audio recording of her voice.

It was an unconventional but effective trick that she had first seen Clint use in 2007 during a mission in Cairo... the sunburn and sand in awkward places had been worth seeing that trafficking ring fall.

The explosion had almost caught her off guard but she had been expecting it.

A second later, she was on her feet and flying from her hiding spot to kick the gun from his hand and use the rest of her momentum to swing onto his back.

Her legs locked around his waist as she pulled a wire from her jacket, trying to wrap it around his throat... she wasn't strong enough to put him into a proper chokehold.

"Shit." she growled as the Winter Soldier wrapped his fingers around the wire, preventing her from using it effectively.

The Winter Soldier slammed her against the car behind them to make her lose her grip before throwing her onto the burnt car in front of him.

She whimpered at the hot metal and pain in both her back and abdomen as she rolled off the car to the asphalt.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the Winter Solider pick his machine gun up from the road.

" _What do we say to death?"_ a voice, this one sounding far too much like Stark, asked her mind.

"Shut up." she growled, pulling a small electronic disk from her belt.

As soon as it hit the Winter Solider's arm, it short circuited it... or so she assumed because she was already off and running.

" _Run Forest."_ Stark's voice piped up again.

"I have Stark quoting movies and television in my head... how is this my life?" she muttered, rushing past civilians as she tried to put as much space between herself and the Winter Soldier.

The bullet hit her hard, throwing her off balance and down to the ground.

" _Where? Where?"_ she thought, looking around desperately as she scrambled for cover.

Somewhere in the back of her mind, Clint was talking to her... coaxing her through the pain... trying to make sure she stayed alert... but shock was threatening to drown him out.

Behind her, she heard a thump and looked up to see the Winter Soldier... poised and ready to kill her.

" _Not today."_ she pleaded silently.

 **-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-**

Steve groaned as the force of the Winter Soldier's punch to his shield rolled up his arm.

" _This guy hits almost as hard as Thor."_ he thought, just before the other man swiped his shield out of the way and kicked him in the stomach.

"Probably kicks like him too." he groaned, rolling up into a crouch to block gun fire with his shield.

The Winter Soldier slid off the car hood, pulling a submachine gun from his back and firing as Steve ran around the other side of the vehicle.

Steve vaulted over the hood the car and kicked the sub machine gun away... only to have a pistol immediately fired at his shield.

"How many guns do you have?" he growled, aiming a punch at the Winter Soldier... who ducked away.

Steve took advantage of the momentary distraction to knock the pistol from his hand.

The Winter Soldier grabbed the shield and used both it and the strength of his metal arm to flip Steve over. When he landed, the Winter Soldier hit him once with the shield and then with his metal fist... sending Steve rolling backwards.

"That's mine." Steve hissed, rushing the Winter Soldier.

The other man knew how to use and throw the shield... hard enough that it would have done some serious damage if Steve had dodged.

When he saw that Winter Soldier had pulled out a knife, he almost took a step back.

"Remember Cap?" Clint's voice asked.

Clint and Rain had both worked with him to help him adjust to and fight back against the variety of fighting style he'd face as a SHIELD operative.

He never had quite wrapped his head around how fast Clint could maneuver a knife to slash or stab from what felt like a dozen different angles at once.

Steve dodged the knife when he had to, blocked punches and managed to land some of his own.

The Winter Soldier was good... maybe better than Clint and that metal arm gave him an advantage.

Finally, sometime after the Winter Soldier lost his first knife and replaced with a second, Steve was able to retrieve his shield from where it had wedged in a van window.

After using it to block the knife and a kick, he drove the edge of it into the cybernetic arm... forcing the metal plates to separate in a way that made the Winter Soldier groan.

Steve ripped the shield away, hit him in the face and then flipped him over his shoulder into the street.

Somewhere in the midst of his roll, the Winter Soldier's mask fell away... making him pause but only for a moment.

Steve stared as the Winter Soldier turned to face him.

It was impossible... he had seen his best friend fall down into that gorge over seventy years... had watched him disappear into the ice and snow that awful day.

"Bucky." he whispered.

 _ **Author: As always much love to all the readers who have been patiently awaiting this chapter. Thanks everyone. And shout out & love to my girl Mia aka Overlordred who has been my constant digital companion the past few weeks because she has helped to keep me on track & has also make all the Avengers (especially Team Cap) a little bit realer. Especially Rain. :)**_


End file.
